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AIG cuts back staff at investment arm
16.12.08
Embattled insurer American International Group is axeing 6% of staff at investment arm AIG Investments, with key jobs in London among them.
Ion Bogdaneris, head of its European alternative investments business, is leaving along with Raj Ranawat, a London-based managing director with the arm's direct investments group, and Devesh Bajoria, a senior analyst in the private-equity funds-of-funds group in New York.
The group had 1950 employees before the lay-offs. News of the job losses came as AIG unveiled the sale of assets with a face value of $39.3 billion (£25.7 billion) to a fund established by the Federal Reserve Bank of New York for $19.8 billion.
AIG's new fund, Maiden Lane II, was created to hold mortgage liabilities from an AIG securities lending portfolio that caused huge losses to the company, sparking a $152 billion rescue package from the US taxpayer. The deal is part of a plan to clear the insurer of its obligations on mortgage debt.
