New AIG Chief Plans to Carve Leaner Corporation

The new CEO of beleaguered giant American Insurance Group plans to trim the company, selling some assets to raise capital and pay back the government following its $85 billion bailout, reports the Wall Street Journal. "There will be a company at the end of this," vowed Edward Liddy, 62, former chief executive of Allstate.

 "It'll be smaller. It'll be a lot nimbler," he added. "My game plan is not to liquidate. I want to emerge from this with a set of core assets that are fit to fight." AIG's insurance businesses are still "powerful," and Liddy plans to "keep as many of them as I possibly can," he said. AIG's international and domestic property-casualty operation is a "keeper," along with international and domestic life insurance businesses, he added.
(More American Insurance Group stories.)