AIG’s head-scratching filing…
Every now and then, we come across a filing that truly makes us scratch our head. We’re just not quite sure what to make of it. And that’s exactly how we felt when we came across this Form 4 filed late yesterday by AIG.
Maybe it’s because we don’t spend a lot of time digging into Form 4s — instead, we rely on services like Insider Score for Form 4 crunching — but there’s something that seems odd about a filing made on Oct. 6 that talks about securities in Primus Telecommunications (PMUS) that were disposed of on July 1. Now July 1 happens to be the date that Primus’ reorganization plan was approved. As a footnote in the filing notes, Primus and three subsidiaries filed for Chapter 11 on March 16, 2009.
Or maybe it has something to do with the various news articles talking about another company — Primus Financial Holdings — (which may or may not be related to the other Primus) being the leading candidate to buy AIG’s Taiwanese life insurance unit.
Whatever it is, we’re confused and we don’t admit to that all that often. So if you have a good explanation on why this Form 4 was filed yesterday, we’re all ears. Please post your comments below.
Advertisement
|
Posted in Tags: AIG, Form 4s |
 5 Comments » |
October 7th, 2009 at 11:48 am
This is not a *good* explanation as you had requested, but I wonder whether October 6 was simply the date that they got around to writing off this seemingly worthless equity investment. The shares appear to have been owned by a number of AIG-sponsored private equity funds, and this may be the time of year when those funds go through their portfolio and decide what to write up in value, what to write down, and what to write off. Just my speculation, though; others may have a more informed view.
October 7th, 2009 at 12:09 pm
Thanks, @SeanDC. That’s as good of an explanation as any. Just trying to figure out how this complies with the rules as I understand them for Form 4s. I thought there were 4 business days to disclose all purchases/sales, but perhaps bankruptcy changes those rules. Like I said, I’m confused!
October 7th, 2009 at 1:28 pm
It sounds like July 1 was the date these securities were extinguished in the bankruptcy. Why they delayed filing the Form 4, I don’t know, but you can see how it might have been an oversight if they wrote off the investment .
October 7th, 2009 at 2:52 pm
The two companies both have Primus in the name, but they are not related. Primus is not an uncommon corporate name — there are 63 Primuses in Bloomberg’s database; they are not all related. The telecom firm is a VOIP provider in Virginia. The other Primus is a new financial holding company. From a Bloomberg article:
Primus Financial, co-founded by former Citigroup Inc. Asia investment banking chief Robert Morse, offered more than $2 billion for AIG’s Nan Shan Life Insurance Co., two of the people said.
This company is far enough off of the radar that Bloomberg does not have a ticker for them yet. I am guessing that this is just a shell to buy Nan Shan Life.
October 9th, 2009 at 8:16 pm
That is correct, Primus is buying AIG Taiwan. PT is probably a sister company.