ROBERT Willumstad, American International Group Inc's new chief executive officer, says "nothing is off the table" as he tries to win back shareholders' confidence in the world's biggest insurer.
Willumstad, who replaced Martin Sullivan as CEO after record losses tied to subprime loans, said he plans to review all of AIG's operations, which include offices in more than 100 countries and more than US$45 billion of hard-to-value assets. AIG declined 5 cents to US$34.13 in early German trading yesterday.
"I've set a goal in the next 90 days to dig into the businesses, all of the businesses, not just the non-insurance businesses, to make sure our capital is being employed in the right areas," Willumstad told Bloomberg News.
"If there are businesses that are hampered in terms of their growth, or strategically we're not as competitive in some areas, we'll take a hard look."
Willumstad will need to assure regulators, investors and his 116,000 workers that he has a firm grip on the company. Sullivan was ousted over the weekend after New York-based AIG lost 41 percent of market value this year following record losses of US$13 billion in the past two quarters.
The performance has been "unacceptable," said Willumstad, who has served as AIG's chairman since 2006 and promised to have a turnaround plan in place by September.
Willumstad said he'll meet with AIG's unit heads, business partners and regulators to get a better feel for the company, which has US$1 trillion of assets. He worked almost 40 years in banking before joining AIG and was part of Sanford Weill's team that created Citigroup Inc, the biggest US bank by assets, from the 1998 merger of insurer Travelers Group and CitiCorp. Jamie Dimon, who also worked with Weill, now runs JPMorgan Chase & Co, the third-largest US bank.
A Brooklyn native and graduate of Long Island's Adelphi University, Willumstad left Citigroup in July 2005, saying he wanted to be CEO of a public company.
As well as selling life insurance and protecting property, AIG owns or manages about US$25 billion of real estate, including residential, industrial and retail properties. The company had private equity and fund holdings of US$29.4 billion as of March 31 and owns International Lease Finance Corp, the largest plane leasing company.