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Carl Icahn with AIG in his sights

Last updated: 10:27 28 Oct 2015 EDT, First published: 06:27 28 Oct 2015 EDT

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Carl Icahn is a legendary US investor

Controversial and billionaire investor Carl Icahn was back in the news today - this time with insurer American International Group (NYSE:AIG) in his sights.

Shares in the firm shot up over 3% as it emerged he had taken a large stake in the group and called for the firm to be split up.

AIG is one of the largest insurance groups in the US.

In an open letter to its chief executive Peter Hancock, which was posted on social network Twitter (NYSE:TWTR), Icahn said the firm continued "to severely underperform its peers" and was now "facing an increasingly onerous regulatory burden which will only further erode its competitive position".

He added: "Despite years of dismantling and selling non-core assets, AIG is still too large.

The investor urged Hancock to consider separating the life and mortgage insurance subsidiaries to create three independent but public firms.

He also was critical of the current strategy.

"The combination of life insurance and p&c insurance into a single entity offers no net benefit to shareholders (proven by industry low ROE), a fact that has driven other major multiline insurers to aggressively focus on a single line of business. 

"We believe you must acknowledge that the current multiline strategy is not generating competitive returns."

AIG said it had received the letter and that significant steps had been taken to reposition the group by simplifying and lowering risk.

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