AIG posts Q1 profit after two years

Insurer American International Group Inc, recipient of a $182.5 billion US government bailout last year, has posted its first quarterly profit since 2007, as its business improved during the period.

It made a $1.82 billion profit in the three months to June, after a loss of $5.4 billion in the same period of 2008. Its earnings were boosted by investment gains, but the company's insurance operations remained weak.

Chief executive Edward M Liddy said in New York on Friday that the good second quarter result was largely due to reductions in net realised capital losses and continued reductions in the risk profile of AIG Financial Products Corp.

AIG was closer to unwinding AIG Financial, the unit that sold derivatives and was responsible for nearly 50 per cent of its $99 billion losses in 2008, he added.

"Our results reflect stabilisation in certain of our businesses," Ed Liddy, chief executive said. Other operations, he said, "remained challenged largely driven by weak economic conditions and the lingering effect of the negative AIG events earlier in the year".

Liddy, appointed after AIG's near-collapse, is to step down after 11 months in the job. His appointment was always meant to be temporary. Robert Benmosche will replace him.