NU Online News Service, Aug. 4, 11:28 a.m.EDT

The government may sell its stake in American InternationalGroup Inc. through a public stock offering sometime after 2013,according to the U.S. Government Accountability Office.

GAO officials talk about the future of AIG, New York (NYSE:AIG),and other large recipients of federal financial assistance in areport on federal financialassistance to private-sector companies prepared forcongressional committees.

The government has provided $134 billion in indirect and directassistance to AIG, with the majority made through governmentinvestments in AIG stock, officials said.

"When AIG will be able to pay the government completely back forits assistance is currently unknown because the federalgovernment's exposure to AIG is increasingly tied to the futurehealth of AIG, its restructuring efforts and its ongoingperformance as more debt is exchanged for equity," Gene Dodaro, theacting comptroller general of the United States, wrote in a letterdescribing the GAO's findings.

Officials in the U.S. Treasury Department and at the FederalReserve Board told GAO staffers that AIG must repay a Federal Reserve Bank of New York credit facility before thegovernment's AIG trust can dispose of its AIG stock, Mr. Dodarosaid.

AIG is supposed to repay the credit facility by Sept. 13,2013.

Treasury officials and AIG trust trustees plan to coordinatetheir divestment efforts, Mr. Dodaro said.

The trustees of the AIG trust said they will begin working on anexit strategy when AIG has repaid the New York Fed, according toMr. Dodaro.

At the Treasury Department, the "team that manages the AIGinvestment has been running scenarios of possible exit strategiesbut has not decided which strategy to employ," he said.

The AIG trust could convert its AIG Series C Preferred Stockinto common stock and dispose of the common stock through a publicoffering or a private sale, Mr. Dodaro said.

The Treasury Department could dispose of its shares by havingAIG redeem the shares; converting the shares into common stock andselling the stock through a public offering; or selling the sharesto an institutional buyer or buyers through a private sale.