Ceding to pressure from activist investors, American International Group plans to take its mortgage insurer, United Guaranty, public later this year, according to a report from Bloomberg.
The Bloomberg report states that United Guaranty’s initial public offering is currently slated to be for $100 million but notes that the amount could possibly change.
According to the Bloomberg report, United Guaranty won’t receive any of the money from the IPO. The Bloomberg report adds that JPMorgan Chase and Morgan Stanley are underwriting the deal.
According to the Bloomberg report, the move comes as AIG is receiving pressure from several activist investors to break up the company.
From Bloomberg:
AIG Chief Executive Officer Peter Hancock has faced continued calls from activist investors Carl Icahn and John Paulson to pursue a more drastic breakup of the company. Hancock has already said he’s planning to fully exit United Guaranty. In January, a plan was announced to sell up to 19.9% of the United Guaranty business in an IPO, the first step to a full separation.
According to AIG’s documents filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission, United Guaranty is the “leading private mortgage insurance company in the United States.”
AIG cites several reasons why the United Guaranty is poised to succeed in the future, including the “improving fundamentals of the housing market,” “favorable long-term demographic drivers,” and “higher credit quality of new mortgage originations.”
