NEW YORK, Oct 3: Embattled insurance giant AIG announced plans on Friday to sell off “non-core” assets to pay off its loan from the US Federal Reserve, which would conclude a controversial government bailout.

AIG chairman and chief executive Edward Liddy offered no timetable or specifics on the sales but said it would be “a deliberate and disciplined approach.” “We’ll sell as many assets as needed to repay our obligations,” he told a conference call.

AIG, or American International Group, had drawn $61 billion from a Fed credit line of $85 billion as of Sept 30.

Liddy did not rule out drawing down more from its Fed credit line.

“We don’t know exactly where the borrowing from the Federal Reserve will top out at, and the reason we don’t know is we don’t know what market conditions will be like,” he said.

“So to the extent we borrow more from the Fed we’ll obviously have to sell more assets,” he said.

AIG said it plans to retain “its US property and casualty and foreign general insurance businesses, and to retain a continuing ownership interest in its foreign life insurance operations” but would explore “divestiture opportunities for its remaining high-quality businesses and assets.”

The repayment would end a controversial US government bailout of the company, one of the world’s biggest insurers, which had been on the brink of a collapse that would have sent more shock waves through the financial system.—AFP