Reply #45: AIG Fall Blunts Talk of Taxpayer Gain [View All]

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704681904576311342211666106.html?mod=dist_smartbrief

As American International Group Inc. executives this week begin promoting a stock sale that will help end U.S. ownership in the giant insurer, the government looks unlikely to reap large gains officials talked up just months ago, and may not profit from its first offering of AIG shares.

Late last year, with AIG shares soaring and the initial public offering of General Motors Co. exceeding expectations, company and federal officials raised hopes that taxpayers would score big profits on the stake in the insurer that the government rescued at the height of the financial crisis.

Since then, the combination of disappointing 2010 financial results by AIG and the tens of billions of dollars in shares that the government needs to unload over time has dimmed prospects for the first stock sale, expected later this month.(LET'S NOT MENTION HOW MUCH AIG HAD TO PAY OUT FOR FUKUSHIMA--THAT WOULD HURT OUR NUCLEAR POWER CAMPAIGN...DEMETER)

AIG's publicly traded shares have lost over a third of their value since mid-January, even as the overall U.S. stock market has rallied strongly. The shares closed at $30.70 Friday in 4 p.m. New York Stock Exchange trading...Treasury's break-even price on its AIG stake is about $28.70 per share.