American International Group Inc. is looking to buy back a large amount of its shares from the government in a push that could make the U.S. a minority shareholder by the fall and enable the insurer to fully repay its bailout sooner than expected, the Wall Street Journal reported today. AIG, which was effectively nationalized by the government four years ago as part of a controversial financial-industry bailout, has been accumulating billions of dollars in cash that it can use for share repurchases and other activities. Several analysts who follow the company say that the government's stake could be cut below 30 percent before the November elections, if asset sales expected by AIG in the coming months help the company raise a total of $10 billion to $15 billion in excess capital. The buybacks are likely to accompany one or more public share offerings of AIG stock by the Treasury, which over the past 16 months has reduced its stake from a peak of 92 percent through a series of at-market sales.
