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American International Group's (AIG's) chairman and chief executive officer Edward Liddy today (3 October) announced plans to refocus the group on its "traditional strengths in property and casualty underwriting" and to divest all other businesses and assets.

In a statement, AIG clarified that it plans to retain its US property and casualty and foreign general insurance businesses, and to retain a continuing ownership interest in its foreign life insurance operations.

However, it said it also aims to generate enough liquidity to repay the $61bn it has drawn from the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, as at 30 September.

It is understood that AIG will keep a minimum stake in the American International Assurance Company (AIA) and sell assets in American Life Insurance Company (Alico), which includes its UK arm AIG Life.

Liddy said: "To realise our objective, we will sell a number of extraordinary businesses that are proving to be highly attractive to buyers.

"We have already been contacted by numerous strong, stable parties, and we expect that buyers will recognise the value of these properties, be a good strategic fit and offer the greatest potential for growth, profitability, and continuing opportunities for employees.

"Our goal is to emerge from this process as a smaller but more nimble company that is solidly profitable and has good long-term growth prospects.