American International Group has launched the sale of a partial stake in Asia insurer AIA and detailed a plan to repurchase up to $5bn (£3bn) of its stock from the US government.

AIG's sale of up to $2bn of AIA Group shares comes two days after a lock-up period expired and will help partially fund the buyback, though the US insurer has opted not to sell the entire $7.6bn block of AIA shares, Reuters reports. The US insurer, rescued in 2008 by what became a $182bn US government bailout, sold $6 billion worth of AIA shares in March. AIA, Asia's third-largest insurance company, was the former subsidiary of AIG's global business and spun off from the group two years ago in a Hong Kong listing. AIG is offering about 600m shares in a range of HK$25.75 to HK$26.75 each, equivalent to a discount of 2.1pc and a premium of 1.7pc to AIA's Thursday close of HK$26.3, a term sheet of the deal showed.....Read more here: AIG sells AIA stake to pay back US for bailout - Telegraph