Liddy: AIG Stabilizing

NEW YORK — The finances of American International Group Inc. are “far more stable” than they were a few months ago, according to the company’s top executive.

Edward Liddy, the chairman and chief executive officer of AIG, New York, gave that assessment of AIG Tuesday at the company’s annual meeting.

Liddy said he is optimistic about the ability of AIG to repay the loans provided by the federal government.

Problems have rocked the company since its last shareholders meeting because “AIG strayed from what it does best: the business of insurance,” Liddy said.

In recent months, the faltering economy has made it more difficult for AIG to get fair value for the properties it is trying to sell to repay the government, but returns on assets should improve when the economy improves, Liddy said.

Liddy talked about progress with efforts to repay debt to the federal government by putting two major foreign insurance subsidiaries, ALICO and AIA, into special purpose vehicles, and he also talked about efforts to prepare AIU Holdings, AIG’s global property-casualty insurance franchise, for a possible stock offering.

AIG now has an “excellent chance” to repay the federal government, Liddy said.

When shareholders asked about AIG’s stock price, Liddy declined to speculate on when the price of the stock might recover.