Chartis to decide on sell-off

AIG’s recently formed Chartis unit will decide before the end of next year on a possible stock market listing, Europe chief executive Julio Portalatin told Reuters.

"We will be in a position to adequately evaluate the value that we can get from an IPO (initial public offering) sometime before the end of 2010. It's not a 2009 event," he said.

Chartis has said it plans to sell a stake of up to 20% either through an initial public offering or transactions with private investors, cutting AIG's ownership, depending on market conditions.

Customer retention

"Chartis Europe continues to do very well. We're financially strong," he said. "If you look at customer retention, it's still very high, north of 90%."

Portalatin said Chartis wanted to hire people to develop new products for the aviation industry and would also target high net worth ndividuals.

Chartis Europe could take advantage of regulatory changes brought by the European Union's Solvency II rules to make small-scale, niche acquisitions.

Europe to grow

Chartis Europe currently counts for around 10% of Chartis' group-level premium income. Portalatin wants Europe to contribute more to the group and said his company was keen to expand in markets such as Russia or Scandinavia.

"I think that, in years to come, if you look at Solvency II, there will be opportunities that will present themselves," he said.