US: AIG offers to buy back bonds

AMERICAN International Group (AIG), the largest commercial insurer in the US and Canada, has offered to buy back more than $1 billion (R12bn) of its bonds as the firm targets debt issued when interest rates were higher. The insurer was redeeming notes in currencies such as the dollar, the yen and the Swiss franc, AIG said on Tuesday. An offer for securities including $1.2bn of 8.175 percent junior sub-ordinated debentures will expire on April 13, subject to extension. Those bonds were issued near the depths of the financial crisis. AIG has been repurchasing stock, expanding through acquisitions and redeeming old debt after returning to profitability and repaying a taxpayer bailout that started in 2008. Debt-reduction efforts last year had cut annual interest expenses by about $250 million, the company said in February. – Bloomberg