About 10 firms submit bids for AIG Taiwan unit: reports

TAIPEI (Reuters) - About 10 global and Taiwan financial firms have submitted bids to buy troubled AIG's (AIG.N) Taiwanese insurance unit, newspapers said on Saturday, in a deal that could fetch up to over $2 billion.

Global private equity firms Kohlberg Kravis Roberts KKR.UL, MBK Partners and Affinity Partners are among the bidders for AIG unit Nan Shan Life, the Chinese-language Economic Daily News said, quoting identified sources.

The report comes a day after industry sources told Reuters that Carlyle CYL.UL and Hong Kong-based financial firm Primus Financial Holdings would submit bids by the end of the Friday deadline.

Cathay (2882.TW), Chinatrust (2891.TW), Fubon (2881.TW) financial firms and conglomerate Ruentex Group in Taiwan have also handed in their bids, the Economic Daily News quoted the sources as saying.

All companies were not immediately available for comment.

The bids for Nan Shan ranged from $1.7 billion to $2.5 billion, with AIG expected to make a decision on the buyer in August or September, the Economic Daily News and the Commercial Times said.

AIG wants to shed some of its global assets to repay the U.S. government after a bailout totaling about $180 billion.

Earlier this year, it sold its Taiwan securities unit to Hong Kong-listed Bank of East Asia (0023.HK) and agreed to sell its credit card and accounts-receivable business to small Taiwanese lender Far Eastern International Bank (2845.TW).

If AIG sells Nan Shan, it will not be the first foreign firm to sell insurance units in Taiwan.

Last October, Holland's ING Groep (ING.AS) sold its insurance unit to Fubon for $600 million, while Britain's Prudential (PRU.L) got rid of its Taiwan operation to Taipei-based China Life (2823.TW) earlier this year.

(Reporting by Lee Chyen Yee; Editing by Valerie Lee)