AIG's former CEO wants annual meeting postponed, says company is 'in crisis'

By Lisa Kerner

Charlotte, N.C., May 12 - American International Group, Inc.'s former chief executive officer, Maurice R. Greenberg, asked the company's board of directors to postpone the company's annual meeting scheduled for Wednesday to give shareholders time to "absorb the significance of the company's first quarter losses."

In a Sunday letter to AIG's board, Greenberg said the postponement will also give shareholders time to consider how best to move the company forward.

The letter was included in a schedule 13D filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Greenberg, AIG's largest individual shareholder, said several other top AIG shareholders have contacted him expressing concern about the "persistent and seemingly endless destruction of value" of the company.

The investor said AIG is "in crisis" and cited its first-quarter net loss of $7.81 billion, or $3.09 per diluted share.

"It is the worst performance in AIG's approximately 40-year history - and follows almost equally poor results from last quarter, which was the worst quarter in the company's history before this quarter," Greenberg's letter said.

"Over the last twelve months, shareholders of AIG have lost $80 billion in the aggregate," Greenberg added.

Greenberg also questioned why AIG has not explained why it decided to raise some $12.5 billion in the capital markets rather than pursuing other paths, such as the divestiture of non-core assets or "the infusion of capital from sovereign wealth funds or private equity funds."

AIG is an insurance and financial services company based in New York.

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