NEW YORK (Reuters) - American International Group Inc is seeking to ease terms for repayment of a $60 billion U.S. government loan, according to media reports.
The proposed change could allow bidders for several AIG units currently on the auction block to finance deals with stock and cash, or other forms of non-cash consideration, the Financial Times and the Wall Street Journal reported, citing people familiar with the situation.
An AIG spokesman said the company had no comment on the reports.
Under current terms, AIG is required to use cash to repay at least 90 percent of the government loan.
AIG was bailed out by the government in September after bad mortgage bets left it on the verge of collapse. Its rescue was sweetened in November when the Federal Reserve and U.S. Treasury stepped in with more cash to buy mortgage assets that had left the insurer deeply in the red, and to ease the terms of its loan repayment.
AIG management's appeal to change the repayment terms is aimed at boosting competition in the unit sales and countering the perception that it is being forced to sell units at bargain prices to repay the loan, the Financial Times said.
AIG plans to retain its global property-casualty units and a stake in its life insurance operations but sell the rest to repay part of the government bailout, which has swelled to $152 billion.
(Reporting by Lilla Zuill in New York and Ajay Kamalakaran in Bangalore; Editing by David Cowell and John Wallace)
