Unstructured Finance

Goldman, AIG and the government renew their friendship

Scanning Goldman Sachs’s newly published interactive annual report on Monday, Unstructured Finance had to do a double-take upon seeing American International Group highlighted as a client success story.

Yes, that’s right. AIG.

Goldman’s site features a 3-minute, 47-second video with two investment bankers, Devanshu Dhyani and Andrea Vittorelli, talking about their work on various AIG deals to help repay the U.S. government.

It also has photos of bankers around the globe who were involved with AIG stock sales, stock buybacks and assets sales, including Chris Cole, co-chairman of investment banking; Yan Liu, Ed Byun Dan Dees and Phyllis Luk, bankers based in Hong Kong; and Michael Tesser and Terence Lim, bankers based in New York.

“The most important aspect of success here was the full repayment of the U.S. government – $182 billion of funds committed to stabilizing AIG at the height of the financial crisis – not only repaid back in a matter of years but repaid back at a profit of $23 billion to the US taxpayer,” says Dhyani. “I think that’s a tremendous achievement for AIG, for people who are involved in this process.”

Jim Millstein, a former Lazard banker who oversaw the government’s stake in AIG at the U.S. Treasury Department until 2011, also contributed a quote to the site.

UF’s Weekend Reads

Here is Sam Forgione’s suggested weekend reads. And a reminder to our UF readers in the US that daylight savings time begins on Sunday, so set those clocks forward 1 hour.

 

From The New Yorker:

Nick Paumgarten traversed the restless egos of Davos for a candid look at the event. The story captures the ambivalence many feel toward the well-hyped forum.

From The Atlantic:

Megan McCardle asks how and why companies get complacent, even when they know they’re sinking, using GM and Blockbuster as examples.

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