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Empresas y finanzas

NY Fed sells assets from AIG bailout to Merrill Lynch


    NEW YORK (Reuters) - The New York Federal Reserve said on Thursday it sold all its TRIAXX collateralized debt obligations from a portfolio of assets that was used in the government bailout of insurer AIG to Merrill Lynch, following a competitive bid process with eight other Wall Street firms.

    Terms of the sale of the assets from the portfolio known as Maiden Lane III were not disclosed, though the New York Fed did say the assets were sold at a profit.

    Merrill, the broker-dealer unit of Bank of America , beat out Barclays Capital , Citigroup , Credit Suisse , Deutsche Bank , Goldman Sachs , Morgan Stanley , Nomura <9716.T> and RBS Securities .

    "The winning bids, which were materially higher than the original prices ML III paid, demonstrate continued interest in these assets and represent good value for the public," said New York Fed President William Dudley in a statement.

    Nearly two week ago, the New York Fed said it "invited" the nine broker-dealers, "based on their expressions of interest," to submit bids for the TRIAXX CDOs, which are backed by subprime mortgages.

    The combined principal value of all the TRIAXX CDO securities in the Maiden Lane III portfolio was about $2.5 billion as of March 31, according to the latest Fed data.

    The fair value of the Maiden Lane III portfolio was $20.21 billion on May 2, according to Fed data.

    As a part of the government bailout of insurer AIG in 2008, the New York Fed lent $24.3 billion to finance the purchase of securities for Maiden Lane III, while AIG took a $5 billion equity stake.

    The New York Fed said it will continue to explore through BlackRock Solutions, the investment manager for the Maiden Lane portfolio, the sale of the rest of the assets in Maiden Lane III.

    "There is no fixed time frame for future sales," the New York Fed said.

    (Reporting by Richard Leong; Editing by Leslie Adler)