NEW YORK—American International Group Inc. on Thursday reported $2.11 billion in net income attributable to AIG for the first six months of this year, compared with a loss of $873 million during the prior-year period in 2010.

AIG’s Chartis Inc. property/casualty insurance unit reported year-to-date operating income of $326 million, compared with $1.83 billion during the first half of last year. Although core property/casualty unit Chartis reported operating income of $789 million for the second quarter, its first quarter results had been battered by catastrophe losses, resulting in a quarterly operating loss of $463 million because of catastrophes.

Chartis’ net written premiums for the first six months of the year totaled $18.33 billion, an 18.8% increase from the same period in 2010.

Chartis’ U.S. operations generated net written premium of $9.09 billion during the first six months of the year, an increase of 6.6%. International net written premium, however, jumped 33.8% to $9.25 billion during the first half.

Chartis’ year-to-date combined ratio stood at 111.2%, compared with 102.3% during the same period last year. The combined ratio for the second quarter of this year was 104.0%, a slight decline from the 102.0% registered during the second quarter of last year but a significant improvement over first quarter 2011’s 119.0%.

AIG moving toward independence

During a Friday conference call discussing AIG’s performance, AIG President and CEO Robert H. Benmosche stressed how far the company has moved toward independence after the federal government took a nearly 80% ownership stake in AIG in September 2008 after the company nearly collapsed.

“In my mind, AIG’s crisis is over,” he said.

“Our results for the second quarter demonstrate the hard work from employees across all of our business units and our unrelenting focus on performance,” said Mr. Benmosche in a statement issued Thursday. “We also achieved a significant recapitalization milestone during the quarter with an $8.7 billion common stock offering, consisting of the issuance and sale of 100 million shares by AIG and the sale of 200 million shares at a profit by the U.S. Treasury. Our continued improving operating results should provide a catalyst for the U.S. Treasury to sell its shares at a profit for the taxpayers. Now that we have fully repaid our debt to the Federal Reserve, we are on the right path to demonstrate AIG’s long-term value as an investment-grade company independent of government support.”

The company noted that in late May, AIG and the Treasury Department completed a registered public offering of AIG common stock, in which AIG issued and sold 100 million shares of common stock for aggregate net proceeds of about $2.9 billion and Treasury sold 200 million shares of common stock.