AIG stock fails to shake off sinking feeling under Benmosche

NEW YORK: American International Group Inc's Robert Benmosche became the fourth consecutive chief executive officer to preside over a stock decline at the bailed-out insurer.

AIG fell $1.56 to $26.50 in the four days ended Jan 22, the ninth decline in past 10 weeks of trading on the New York Stock Exchange. The insurer ended at $27.14 on Aug 7, the last trading day before Benmosche replaced Edward Liddy. The shares have dropped 98 percent under the four CEOs who ran the firm since Maurice Greenberg resigned in 2005.

AIG's five-month slide nullifies the rally Benmosche sparked in his first weeks by promising to rebuild what was once the world's biggest insurer. In the year before his arrival, New York-based AIG reported the biggest loss in US corporate history and accepted government bailouts valued at $182.3 billion in exchange for preferred stock and debt that subordinated common stockholders.