American International Group Inc., the largest commercial insurer in the U.S. and Canada, agreed to sell a consumer operation in Taiwan as Chief Executive Officer Peter Hancock narrows the company’s focus.
Nan Shan Life Insurance Co., a former unit of AIG, will pay $158 million for the business, the New York-based firm said Thursday in a statement. AIG will continue to serve commercial clients in Taiwan, including multinational corporations and local businesses.
AIG’s sale of a plane-leasing operation in 2014 was the last of the company’s major divestitures under a plan conceived in 2008 that helped it repay a U.S. bailout. Hancock, who became CEO in September, has said he still plans to sell smaller businesses that don’t align with the firm’s biggest moneymakers.
“Floating or selling businesses that lack current or realizable potential synergy with our core operations” remains a key initiative, Hancock wrote in March in his first letter to investors as head of the company.
AIG reached a deal in 2011 to sell Nan Shan to Ruen Chen Investment Holding Co. for about $2.2 billion. The agreement for Nan Shan to buy the consumer operation is expected to be completed in the second half of next year, according to the statement.
“AIG has a long-standing relationship with Nan Shan and the two companies expect to remain business partners,” the firm said.
–With assistance from Sonali Basak in New York.