As bankers and the Federal Reserve Board considered whether to extend a financial lifeline to struggling AIG, former chairman and CEO Maurice Greenberg today filed a notice with the Securities and Exchange Commission, saying a company he controls is considering acquiring all or part of the cash-short insurance giant.
In the SEC filing, C.V. Starr--an investment company controlled by Mr. Greenberg and formerly an affiliate of AIG--said it has hired Perella Weinberg Partners, a small investment bank based in New York, as a financial adviser.
The filing says that C.V. Starr is apparently considering whether to buy all or part of AIG.
Specifically, the filing says that C.V. Starr is considering acquiring assets from AIG (including one or more of its subsidiaries), providing loans or investments, and perhaps seeking representation on AIG's board, or even seeking to gain control of the company.
The filing goes on to say that its other options could include participating in a transaction that would take AIG private.
The filing adds that C.V. Starr could also seek a role in advising the company on its business options--for example, how to improve its financial condition.
A spokesman for the New York Insurance Department cautioned, however, that the filing also stated that Mr. Greenberg would not be able to participate in AIG's activities in any way until he received permission from the department, and that the department had so far not even received a request for Mr. Greenberg to participate in AIG's affairs.
Mr. Greenberg left AIG under pressure in 2005 after the state insurance department and the state attorney general at the time, Eliot Spitzer, determined that the carrier had engaged in a number of questionable accounting and other transactions.
According to a report in The New York Times, Mr. Greenberg owns about 39 million AIG shares directly, as well as an additional 243 million shares through his private equity firm, Starr International.
The shares were worth about $15.8 billion at the beginning of this year, but just $1.3 billion as of the market's close on Monday.
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