Shizuo Kambayashi/Associated Press The A.I.G. logo outside a building in Tokyo.4:48 a.m. | Updated
The American International Group said on Wednesday that it would sell its Taiwan life insurance business, Nan Shan Life, to a consortium in Taiwan for $2.16 billion.
Nan Shan Life has four million policy holders, making it an attractive asset in the crowded Taiwanese insurance sector. The sale is part of A.I.G.’s efforts to pay back the more than $180 billion it received from the United States government to stave off a collapse at the height of the global financial crisis.
The divestment of Nan Shan Life has been plagued by political and regulatory concerns. An earlier attempt to sell the unit for $2.15 billion to a consortium of Primus Financial Holdings, a Hong Kong investment company founded by a former senior Citigroup banker, and the investment firm China Strategic Holdings was blocked by Taiwan’s financial regulators, who said the bidders did not have the financial strength and the long-term commitment to run the company.
In November, A.I.G. told the Securities and Exchange Commission that it had received unsolicited bids on the Taiwan unit ranging from $2.15 billion to $3 billion, according a letter released by the agency in early January.
Analysts cautioned on Wednesday that the sale to Ruen Chen Investment Holding — which is 80 percent held by the textile and hypermarket conglomerate Ruentex Group and 20 percent by a footwear manufacturer — could also face regulatory hurdles.
A.I.G., however, expressed confidence that the new agreement would pass muster.
‘”The participants in the consortium enjoy an excellent reputation in Taiwan,’’ Robert H. Benmosche, the A.I.G. chief executive, said in a statement. “Ruen Chen offers strong operational and funding capabilities and possesses a clear ability to satisfy the strict criteria that governed A.I.G.’s bid review process. Ruen Chen has demonstrated that it is able and willing to invest in Nan Shan’s future.”
In September, A.I.G. sold two Japanese life insurance businesses — A.I.G. Star Life Insurance and A.I.G. Edison Life Insurance — to the American insurer Prudential Financial, for a total of $4.8 billion.
The American Life Insurance Company, known as Alico, was sold to MetLife for about $15.5 billion in March, while the listing in Hong Kong of A.I.G.’s Asian life insurance business, American International Assurance, raised $20.5 billion in October.
A.I.G. hired Debevoise & Plimpton and Lee & Li as counsel on the deal.