The consortium of Chinese firms that has agreed to buy the American International Group‘s airplane leasing division missed a deposit payment, the American insurer disclosed on Friday, threatening to unwind the multibillion-dollar transaction.
Under the terms of the merger agreement, A.I.G. now has the right to cancel the entire deal, though it has not yet done so.
A spokesman for A.I.G. declined to comment.
A.I.G. agreed in December to sell up to 90 percent of the business, the International Lease Finance Corporation, to a group of Chinese investors that includes the New China Trust Company, the China Aviation Industrial Fund and P3 Investments.
The deal valued ILFC, as the unit is known, at about $5.28 billion and was part of the insurance giant’s effort to sell assets that it considers nonessential to its core operations as the company continues to recover from the financial crisis.
