Insurer American International Group (AIG) today posted a profit but fell the most in two months in New York trading after posting sales declines at its property-casualty and life insurance divisions.
Net income of $455 million compares with a net loss of $24.5 billion a year earlier on fewer writedowns.
But the company slipped $3.76, or 9.6 per cent, to $35.52 today in New York Stock Exchange composite trading. Third quarter property-casualty premiums dropped 13 per cent, and life insurance sales plunged 16 per cent, New York-based AIG said today.
"Even with the profit, AIG's still a sick company," said Robert Haines, an analyst at CreditSights Inc. in New York. "The trends of the underlying business units are ultimately more important to the company than a positive quarterly figure."
Chief Executive Officer Robert Benmosche, who started in August, is seeking to halt the departure of customers and employees so he can rebuild units that will be sold to repay loans included in AIG's $182.3 billion bailout.
AIG, which was rescued last year after soured bets tied to mortgages pushed it to the brink of collapse, owes $44.5 billion on its Federal Reserve credit line, $3.2 billion more than three months earlier.
The figure rose as the firm propped up its plane-leasing unit by extending $2 billion in credit and paid down a US commercial paper facility.
Bloomberg