AXA Notes AIG, Lehman Exposures

A bulletin from France’s AXA Group confirms that it “has a non material equity exposure to Lehman Brothers and American International Group (AIG).”

AXA detailed its exposures as follows:
— The Group holds a proprietary equity interest in Lehman Brothers of approximately 0.05 percent of Lehman Brothers’ total outstanding common shares (1).
— The Group’s credit exposure to Lehman Brothers (including credit default swaps) net of policyholders’ participation and net of tax is approximately €300 million [$426.4 million].
— The Group holds a proprietary equity interest in AIG of approximately 0.02 percent of AIG’s total outstanding common shares (1).
— The Group’s credit exposure to AIG (including credit default swaps) net of policyholders’ participation and net of tax is approximately €150 million [$213 million].

AXA expalined that the note “(1)” refers to “recent press reports citing larger AXA holdings of Lehman and AIG common stock.” The company said these reports “refer to assets held in 3rd party client accounts managed principally by AXA’s 63 percent owned asset management subsidiary AllianceBernstein which are not proprietary assets of the AXA Group.”

Source: AXA Group – www.axa.com