Prudential said eyeing more AIG assets

LONDON (Reuters) - Life insurer Prudential (PRU.L) is considering bidding for more than just the Asian operations of American International Group (AIG.N), its chief executive told the Financial Times on Friday.

Prudential, the UK's second-biggest life insurer, said earlier this week that it was interested in buying parts of AIG's Asian business and the FT quoted the Prudential chief executive as saying this interest could now spread.

The newspaper quoted people familiar with the situation as saying that Prudential was also interested in parts of AIG's U.S. life business.

The group is "looking right across the board at the assets," Chief Executive Mark Tucker told the FT.

"I think you would expect us to look at the assets in AIG as they go through their disposal process...I think we are at a very early stage, and I think we're considering the opportunities and over time we will come back and discuss (them) in greater depth."

But the paper said the group would be interested in smaller deals in the United States, possibly blocks of policies that could be transferred to Prudential's U.S. business. The FT said it had $1 billion (618 million pounds) in its U.S. arm that it could use for acquisitions.

In Asia, Prudential was less keen on AIG's assets in Japan and Taiwan, the people familiar with the situation said.

Tucker also refused to be drawn on whether the group would turn to sovereign wealth funds to finance any bid.

AIG, hit by losses on credit default swaps it underwrote, said earlier this month that it would sell parts of its overseas operations to repay billions of dollars in emergency loans provided by the U.S. government.

(Reporting by Kate Holton, editing by Leslie Gevirtz)