Greenberg to Skip AIG’s Annual Meeting After Calling for Delay
Maurice "Hank'' Greenberg, the former chief executive of American International Group (AIG), is skipping today's annual shareholders meeting after calling for its postponement in light of the insurer's problems.
Greenberg had said yesterday that AIG is in "crisis,'' adding pressure on successor Martin Sullivan to turn the company around after two quarterly losses. Greenberg's word carries weight with shareholders because he ran AIG for 38 years before being forced out in 2005, and he controls the largest stake. He had asked AIG to postpone the shareholders meeting so investors could consider the impact of a $7.81 billion first-quarter loss and the decision to raise about $17 billion in capital. The company declined, and Greenberg said he's not going to the meeting that begins at 11 a.m. in New York City.
"Shareholders' value has been diluted,'' Greenberg said yesterday in a telephone interview. "That makes you unhappy, to say the least. Is it unreasonable for a shareholder to say, `Gee, I'd like to see the share price go back to where it was?'''
Published on May 14, 2008
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