AIG Plunges as Downgrades Threaten Quest for Capital (Update2)

By Hugh Son
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Sept. 16 (Bloomberg) -- American International Group Inc. fell 61
percent in New York trading after the insurer's credit ratings were cut,
threatening efforts to raise funds to keep the company afloat and
roiling global financial markets.

S&P lowered AIG's long-term counterparty rating three grades to A-
because of ``reduced flexibility in meeting additional collateral needs
and concerns over increasing residential mortgage-related losses,'' the
rating company said yesterday. Moody's cut AIG's senior unsecured debt
two grades to A2. Fitch Ratings lowered its assessment to A from AA-.

The downgrade of AIG is the latest tremor to shake the global financial
industry, less than a day after Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. filed for
Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection and Merrill Lynch & Co. sold itself to
Bank of America Corp. for about $50 billion. Stock markets from Tokyo to
London tumbled as investors weighed the impact of a potential collapse
of the largest U.S. insurer by assets.

``There's a systemic risk if AIG isn't saved,'' Benoit de Broissia, an
equity analyst at Richelieu Finance in Paris, said in a Bloomberg
Television interview. Richelieu has about $6.2 billion under management.

The rating cuts may trigger more than $13 billion in collateral calls
from debt investors who bought swaps, according to an Aug. 6 filing from
AIG, intensifying pressure on Chief Executive Officer Robert Willumstad
to raise cash. New York-based AIG is seeking $70 billion to $75 billion
in loans arranged by Goldman Sachs Group Inc. and JPMorgan Chase & Co.
to replenish capital, two people familiar with the situation said.

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Sooner or later, corporate greed bites you in the ass.