Former Federal Treasury Adviser Named AIG’s Head of Strategic Planning

American International Group Inc. has named the former lead adviser to Federal Reserve Bank of New York and the U.S. Department of the Treasury on AIG-related issues as its new head of strategic planning.

Peter Juhas will work with AIG’s businesses to develop plans to capitalize on global growth opportunities and ensure the company’s resources are focused on the most attractive activities, AIG (NYSE: AIG) said. Over time, a significant part of his job “will involve the pursuit of acquisitions and strategic investments that complement our organic growth activities,” according to an AIG internal memo.

Juhas has worked on numerous transactions spanning mergers, acquisitions, initial public offerings, leveraged buyouts, secondary offerings, hybrids and senior debt offerings, according to AIG.

He will report to Brian T. Schreiber, AIG executive vice president, treasury and capital markets.

“Few people understand AIG’s challenges and opportunities as well as Pete,” Schreiber said in a statement. “As we intensify our focus on growth and sustainable returns, Pete will play a key role in our identifying and capitalizing on the best opportunities available to our industry-leading franchises.”

This effort will be “critical as we move toward independence while ensuring that the U.S. government recoups its entire investment in AIG,” he added.

Juhas joins AIG from Morgan Stanley, where he was a managing director in the investment banking division, specializing in insurance and diversified financial companies. Over the past three years, he was the lead adviser to the FRBNY and Treasury on AIG issues. Juhas also served as the lead adviser to the Treasury regarding the conservatorship of Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae.

Prior to joining Morgan Stanley in 2000, Juhas served in the mergers and acquisitions group at Sullivan & Cromwell.

Michael Grad had led the strategic planning group on an interim basis, said AIG spokesman Mark Herr in an email. Grad will continue to oversee the day-to-day work with respect to AIG’s equity offering, reporting to Schreiber, he said.

Earlier, the FRBNY said it is auctioning off assets from Maiden Lane II, one of the limited liability companies it set up to aid AIG in 2008 (BestWire, April 11, 2011). At the time, the FRBNY took the then-troubled assets from AIG’s balance sheet and loaned the company cash to conduct business. AIG had offered $15.7 billion to buy back the assets, which are residential mortgage-backed securities, but the Fed rejected the idea on March 30.

AIG was in danger of failing in September 2008 when the FRBNY stepped in to provide the insurer with an emergency loan of up to $85 billion. That initial assistance was restructured over time, and was supplemented in November 2008 and April 2009 by additional financial assistance from the Treasury under the Troubled Asset Relief Program. The available bailout grew as high as $182 billion, but AIG never borrowed the full amount it was offered. Since then, it has been selling noncore assets to pay back what it owes (BestWire, <chron>March 9, 2011).

For instance, in March, AIG said it took some of the proceeds from the sale of American Life Insurance Co. to pay down another $6.9 billion in federal loans (BestWire, March 9, 2011). That was the fourth major payment AIG made to the government in 2011 and brings the total repaid this year to about $36 billion.

Most members of AIG currently have Best’s Financial Strength Ratings of A (Excellent).

On the afternoon of April 13, AIG’s stock was trading at $33.83 a share, down 0.73% from the previous close.

(By Rick Cornejo, managing editor, BestWeek: rick.cornejo@ambest.com)