AIG to take 2 yrs to repay bailout funds
AIG to take 2 yrs to repay bailout funds
London: Troubled insurer American International Group (AIG) will take two years to repay the bailout funds, which it had received from the US government at the peak of the financial crisis last year, says a media report.
The US Treasury had infused about $180 billion of taxpayer-funds into AIG last year.
In an interview to the Financial Times, AIG chief executive officer Robert Benmosche said it would take at least two years for AIG to sell businesses and earn enough profits to repay the government and persuade it to sell its 80% stake.
“The more time (we have), the greater the probability we’ll pay back all of (the aid). But our goal is to pay back all of it," the report quoted Benmosche saying.
However, the daily said the authorities are not as confident.
According to the publication, the US treasury secretary Tim Geithner, recently told the Congress he did not believe the government [would] be fully refunded for its largesse towards AIG. The Government Accountability Office has estimated that US taxpayers would end up losing more than $30 billion on the insurer.
The report said, Benmosche considers his aggressive management style to have helped stop the rot at a company that was heading for liquidation and was being lambasted by politicians for paying bonuses with federal money.
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