AIG to sell plane lessor ILFC to investors: report

CHICAGO (Reuters) - International Lease Finance Corp, the plane-leasing business owned by insurer American International Group (AIG.N), will be sold to a group of investors and ILFC's management, Bloomberg reported on Saturday.

ILFC founder and Chief Executive Steven Udvar-Hazy told the news agency in an interview that the deal would close early next year.

ILFC, one of the biggest buyers of planes from Boeing Co (BA.N) and Airbus (EAD.PA), did not immediately return a call seeking comment.

AIG, which suffered major losses on mortgage derivatives, is selling assets to repay a loan from the Federal Reserve. The outlook for ILFC has been clouded for months by the predicament of AIG.

The plane lessor relied on AIG's blue-chip credit rating for access to capital to buy planes. But when AIG's rating took a hit in September, ILFC was locked out of the debt market.

Bloomberg cited Udvar-Hazy as suggesting the unit had a value of about $10 billion. But the investors were not identified.

(Reporting by Kyle Peterson; Editing by Xavier Briand)