AIG, Treasury offer 300 million of insurer’s common shares

American International Group (AIG) and the Treasury Department began selling millions of shares of AIG common stock Wednesday morning, according to a document filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission. AIG is offering 100 million shares, while the Treasury, which owns about 92% of the insurance giant’s common shares outstanding, is selling 200 million shares. Upon close, the Treasury will own about 1.46 billion shares, or 77%, of AIG stock outstanding, according to the SEC filing. Reports across the industry claim the collective price for the shares will hit about $9 billion, less than half of what was contemplated earlier this year, according to Reuters. A Treasury official said Wednesday  there was never a set price on the deal. AIG will not receive any of the proceeds from the sale of common stock by the Treasury. It will, however, use $550 million in expected proceeds from its own sale to pay off a litigation settlement and general corporate purposes. Underwriters on the deal include Merrill Lynch, Deutsche Bank Securities (DB), Goldman Sachs (GS) and JPMorgan Securities (JPM), have an over-allotment option of up to 45 million shares. Barclays Capital (BCS), Citigroup Global Markets (C), Credit Suisse Securities (CS), Macquarie Capital, Morgan Stanley (MS), UBS Securities (UBS) and Wells Fargo Securities (WFC) were bookrunners for the offering. AIG is gradually moving off its federal crutch established in 2008, when the firm almost went under. The Federal Reserve Bank of New York has been consistently selling the firm’s subprime mortgage bonds as part of a recapitalization plan. In January, the company repaid the revolving line of credit it received from the New York Fed. The insurance giant swung to a loss in the first quarter due in part to the repayment. AIG reported a loss of $543 million, or $1.41 cents a share, for the first three months of 2011. Write to Christine Ricciardi. Follow her on Twitter @HWnewbieCR.