AIG Seeks Huge Loan
As Stock Dives 61%
By MATTHEW KARNITSCHNIG and LIAM PLEVEN
September 16, 2008

American International Group Inc., its shares in free-fall, struggled
Monday to pull off a tangled deal that involved placating state and
federal regulators, convincing banks to give it a huge loan and staving
off the credit-rating agencies that hold the giant insurer's fate in
their hands.

AIG stock fell 61%, knocking more than $18 billion off the company's
stock-market value as investors feared the worst for the company, which
became trapped in the massive decline in shares of financial companies
that have been tarred by their holdings of securities tied to mortgages.

The company, one of the world's most important financial institutions,
turned to the government in earnest after a weekend where intense
efforts failed to produce a plan to raise roughly $40 billion in
capital. AIG needs the money to sidestep a potentially fatal downgrade
by credit-rating firms.

With AIG now tottering, a crisis that began with falling home prices and
went on to engulf Wall Street has reached one of the world's largest
insurance companies, threatening to intensify the financial storm and
greatly complicate the government's efforts to contain it. The company
is such a big player in insuring risk for institutions around the world
that its failure could undermine the global financial system.

Read the rest at the WSJ

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB1221...ecial_coverage