The US government has said it has
made a profit of $15.1bn (£9.4bn) so far on its bailout of insurer AIG, after
selling firm stocks this week. This follows on from the government bailing out the insurer at the height
of the financial crisis with $182bn. The US government will own about 16% of the company.
The government sold 553.8 million shares at $32.50 each on Monday. The Treasury have now said the banks that have been buying the shares off the them had put forward an option, allowing them to buy a further 83.1 million additional shares from the government. This would then take the total proceeds from this week's sale to $20.7bn from $18bn.
It previously said that the "Treasury and the Federal Reserve's combined $182bn commitment made to stabilise AIG during the financial crisis is now fully recovered". "Future sales of [the] Treasury's remaining AIG common stock holdings will provide an additional return to taxpayers," the Treasury said. This is the latest in a series of share sales by the government, designed to return taxpayers' money. The last sale, in August, raised more than $5bn.
The insurer, once the world's largest, has returned to profitability, reporting a second-quarter profit of $2.3bn; 27% more than a year earlier and much higher than expected.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-19554441
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