Benmosche sees property & casualty unit as core
AIG won’t sell off its Chartis property-casualty unit, people because CEO Robert Benmosche says it is a core asset, Bloomberg reports.
“He’s looking at Chartis and thinking that could be more of an ongoing insurer than people previously thought,” said Robert Haines, an analyst at CreditSights in New York. “He’s more inclined to try to build up the company than quickly selling a chunk to investors.”
Chartis executives including CEO Kristian Moor met in the first half of the year with financial advisers and lawyers about a public offering. Preparations stopped after Benmosche took charge.
Low historic value
“Public valuations for property-casualty companies are very low by historic standards, so anybody thinking about doing a public offering right now would really have to think twice about that,” said Paul Newsome, an insurance analyst at Sandler O’Neill Partners.
The unit was renamed twice this year to distance itself from AIG. It was called AIU Holdings in March and Chartis in July. Benmosche told staff he didn’t see the appeal of the Chartis name, derived from the Greek word for “map,” and they shouldn’t be ashamed to be linked to AIG.
