American International Group Agrees To Sell Two Japanese Life Insurance Units To Prudential

American International Group Inc AIG has agreed to sell its 2 Japanese life insurance units, AIG Star Life Insurance Co Ltd and AIG Edison Life Insurance Company, to Prudential Financial Inc PRU for $4.8 billion. AIG said that the sale price of the deal includes cash worth $4.2 billion and assumed debt worth $0.6 billion. The deal between the companies will help Prudential to become the biggest foreign life insurer in Japan. Kenji Kawada, a director at credit rating company Fitch Ratings said, "The acquisitions of the two companies will strengthen Prudential's client base in Japan. This could be a threat to domestic life insurers and other foreign insurers here.” Makarim Salman, an insurance industry analyst at Macquarie Securities in Tokyo mentioned, "There's this feeling that the Japanese market is completely dead and it certainly is very mature from a traditional life insurer perspective." He added, "But an aging population leads to potential growth in terms of medical and savings provisions and that's the angle I think they're approaching it from." AIG shares gained 0.61% to $37.68, while shares of PRU lost 0.02% to $56.52 in after-hours trading. Read more from Benzinga's Company news.