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Banks to meet on AIG, recap to close this week

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NEW YORK (Reuters)—Banks will meet in New York City on Thursday to make their case for the right to sell the U.S. Treasury's stake in American International Group Inc., three people familiar with the matter said Wednesday.

The Treasury will own 92.1% of the bailed-out insurer after a recapitalization deal closes. AIG said on Wednesday afternoon the deal will close on Friday and will lead to a $3.6 billion charge in the current quarter. It had been expected to take large charges related to the closing.

With that deal closed, sources have said a large secondary share offering—$10 billion or more—is expected sometime in the second half of May.

The company and the government are expected to treat the sale much like an initial public offering, given its size and its significance as the effective return of AIG to widely held public ownership.

AIG is hoping to attract significant ownership from institutional investors, drawing in people who fled the stock after its September 2008 near-collapse, sources have said.

Two of the people familiar with the meeting said the banks are likely to come in pitching for a fee of 75 basis points or less, in line with the fees on the IPO of General Motors Co. last year.

Such a structure would be much less than usual for either an IPO or a secondary share offering of that size.

The location of the meeting is not clear, though it is expected to draw the top executives from the participating banks. A source familiar with the situation said Bank of America CEO Brian Moynihan would be among those attending.

Huge paper profit

AIG shares, currently trading above $58, are expected to fall back to the mid-$40 range next week when stock warrants begin trading, a source said on Monday.

Even at that range, though, the government would be looking at a paper profit in the neighborhood of $27 billion.

That would mark a surprise ending to more than two years of tortured back-and-forth on the future of AIG. At one point the government bailout topped $182 billion, and the company was headed for a fire-sale breakup.

But CEO Robert Benmosche, who came on board in August 2009, stopped the fire sale and led the company down a different path, selling off some assets while refocusing the business on U.S. life insurer SunAmerica and global property insurer Chartis Inc.

One of the last pieces of the asset sale program fell into place on Wednesday after more than a year of twists and turns. AIG said it struck a deal to sell Taiwanese life insurer Nan Shan for $2.16 billion.