Manulife, Prudential may bid on AIG unit

In their bid to buy AIG’s American International Assurance Co. Ltd., Manulife Financial Corp. and Prudential PLC may pay cash and shares — or team up with sovereign funds — to purchase the Asian insurance unit, insiders told Bloomberg. Bids for the Shanghai, China-based unit, which has an embedded value of approximately $20 billion, are due today, according to the insiders. If Toronto-based Manulife and London-based Prudential were to work with other bidders and partially cover the acquisition with stock, the suitors would improve their chances of buying up AIA, the insiders said. Sovereign fund Temasek Holdings Ltd. in Singapore is also planning to bid on AIA, according to the report. Just last month, the fund backed away from bidding on New York-based American International Group Inc.’s International Lease Finance Corp., the Los Angeles-based aircraft leasing firm. Sunita Patel, a spokeswoman for Prudential, said that the company had no comment. Laurie Lupton, a spokeswoman at Manulife, declined to comment. Mark Lee, director of corporate affairs at Temasek, did not immediately return a phone call.