American International Group announced Monday it has reached an agreement to sell its international life and health insurance unit Alico to MetLife for approximately $15.5 billion.

MetLife will pay $6.8 billion in cash and the remainder in equity securities. The cash portion will be used to pay down a $47.9 billion investment in AIG by Federal Reserve Bank of New York.

"This sale is an important step toward repaying the government," said Harvey Golub, chairman of the AIG board of directors, in a statement released Monday. "Alico is a unique international life insurer, and we view this as a terrific combination that will further enhance the company's potential over the long term."

Last week, AIG announced it had reached an agreement to sell Asian life insurer AIA for $35.5 billion. The combined deals add up to about $51 billion AIG says will be used to pay down its debt to the government.

"With this sale of ALICO, along with the sale of AIA to Prudential plc announced last week, we are on track to generate approximately $50.7 billion from these two transactions alone, consisting of approximately $31.5 billion in cash to repay the FRBNY, plus another approximately $19.2 billion in securities that we will sell over time to repay the government. In addition, both sales give AIG greater flexibility to move forward with our restructuring and rebuilding efforts, and focus on enhancing the value of our key insurance businesses," said Harvey Golub, Chairman of the AIG Board of Directors.

AIG owes the federal government nearly $130 billion in bailout funds.

According to the Wall Street Journal, Standard & Poor's on Monday said it is keeping most of MetLife's ratings on review with negative implications. "The transaction should enhance both business and financial profiles in the long term, but we believe it carries significant execution risks and comes at a time when capitalization is weak for the rating," S&P said.

Upon completion of the transaction, MetLife (already the largest life insurer in the United States and Mexico) says it will become a leading competitor in Japan, the world's second-largest life insurance market.

The transaction materially advances MetLife's position in Europe, according to a statement. It also moves MetLife into a top five market position in many high growth emerging markets in Central and Eastern Europe, the Middle East and Latin America.

"With this acquisition, MetLife is delivering on its strategy to accelerate international expansion as a powerful growth engine for the company," said C. Robert Henrikson, chairman, president and chief executive officer of MetLife, Inc, in a released statement. "[The] transaction will bring together two profitable, complementary, well-established businesses with superb track records and strong long-term growth potential. We expect it will increase MetLife's return on equity and be accretive to operating earnings."

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AIG sells Alico to MetLife for $15.5 billion

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