While I was washing dishes on 9/11, I listened to NPR's All Things Considered, and heard a terrific story about the sale of $18 billion worth of AIG company stock.
The Treasury Dept has reduced its stake in AIG by selling $18 billion worth of company stock. In doing so, the U.S. government moved from being AIG's majority shareholder to simply having a stake in the company. The sale guarantees that taxpayers will come out ahead on the bailout of the insurer.
I thought about writing a diary about the AIG sale, but didn't think it was appropriate for a 9/11 diary. Then, yesterday, the horrific Libya news came to the forefront.
But, maybe we could all use some terrific news, even if it's three days old.
Sorry for all the bold sentences, but it's such great news.
From NPR News, this is ALL THINGS CONSIDERED. I'm Audie Cornish.
MELISSA BLOCK, HOST:
And I'm Melissa Block. The U.S. government made a big chunk of money in the stock market today. It sold more than 630 million shares in AIG, the American International Group. The government reluctantly acquired the shares when it injected billions of dollars into the insurance giant to keep it from collapsing. The Treasury Department says the government turned a $15.1 billion dollar profit on the deal. Here's NPR's John Ydstie.
JOHN YDSTIE, BYLINE: Most people thought the government would lose a sizeable portion of its $182 billion dollars when it rushed in to prop up AIG during the financial crisis four years ago. The firm had invested billions of dollars in what turned out to be toxic financial assets. The government feared its collapse would tank the whole financial system. But now the company has recovered to a level that allows the government to sell it at a profit.
JIM RYAN: At the opening of this morning, a huge amount of shares traded.
YDSTIE: That's Jim Ryan, a senior analyst at Morningstar.
RYAN: We think that this signifies that the firm is basically back on its own and free to chart its own course.
YDSTIE: In fact, the demand for AIG shares, priced at $32.50, was so great the government sold more than initially anticipated. By the end of the day, the government went from a majority shareholder in the company, to owning under 16 percent of its shares.
DOUG ELLIOTT: This is definitely an occasion to celebrate.
And, here's even better news:
From BBC News:
The government sold 553.8 million shares at $32.50 each on Monday.
The Treasury then said the banks underwriting the share sale had exercised an option, allowing them to buy a further 83.1 million additional shares from the government - taking the total proceeds from this week's sale to $20.7bn from $18bn on Monday.
...
The insurer, once the world's largest, has returned to profitability, reporting a second-quarter profit of $2.3bn, 27% more than a year earlier and much higher than expected.
Compare this news to four years ago when
the financial headlines were awful. (thanks,
steveholt)