AIG CEO expects for sale list next week

By Bill Rigby

NEW YORK (Reuters) - American International Group Inc (AIG.N) should have a list of assets it wants to sell by next week, its new chief executive said on Monday, as the company prepares to split itself up to repay an emergency bailout loan.

The New York-based financial titan, which was once the world's most valuable insurer, needs to raise cash quickly to repay an $85 billion U.S. Federal Reserve loan that allowed it to avoid bankruptcy after taking massive losses on mortgage derivatives.

"We're going to take those assets which are probably very valuable, but can also be digested by buyers in relatively manageable bites, and we will simply start to market them," Edward Liddy, who was appointed AIG's chief executive last week, said in an interview on the CNBC financial news channel.

"I hope within the next seven to 10 days to be out there with a plan that lists everything that's for sale and maybe even execute some of those transactions by then," said Liddy, a former CEO of insurer Allstate Corp (ALL.N).

He said he hoped AIG would be able to pay back the Federal Reserve loan "as quickly as possible." If the loan is not repaid, the U.S. government has the right to take an almost 80 percent stake in the company.

Liddy, who was named AIG's chief last Thursday as part of the Federal Reserve deal, did not identify which of AIG's many operating units might be up for sale.

Its aircraft leasing unit, International Lease Finance Corp, and its large U.S. life insurance and annuity arm American General, which it bought in 2001, could be top of the list, analysts said.

AIG would be a smaller firm after the expected asset sales, focusing on its traditional strengths in property-casualty insurance and its international business, especially in Asia, said Liddy in the CNBC interview.