The profitable Philippine subsidiary of the fallen U.S. Insurance giant American International Group (AIG) is in talks with foreign and local buyers for the takeover of business, its chief executive said Monday.
Jose Cuisia, chief executive of the Philippine American Life and General Insurance Co (Philamlife) told a press conference that close to 10 groups have expressed interest in buying the whole or a piece of the Philippines' leading life insurer.
"These are very respectable groups and this is very encouraging for us," Cusia said, quoted by local TV network ABS-CBN News. "There are also private equity funds who have expressed interest."
The sale of Philamlife, whose interests also include banking, asset management and outsourcing, is the Philippine's first direct exposure to the U.S. financial shake-up.
Philamlife was considered a crown of AIG's business in Asia. The Philippine subsidiary has a consolidated net worth of 49.5 billion pesos (1.05 billion U.S. dollars) and has assets of up to 170 billion pesos (3.61 billion U.S. dollars) as of December 2007.
AIG, which is selling various valuable assets outside its property and casualty insurance business, has enlisted Blackstone Group LP and J.P. Morgan to be the global coordinators for the divestiture program.
The Philippine insurance industry's life sector is dominated by foreign groups, led by AIG, Sunlife and Manulife. Philamlife is the undisputed market pace-setter in local life sector for more than 60 years, ABS-CBN News report said.
Source: Xinhua
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