NEW YORK (Bloomberg) — American International Group Inc.'s fund-management arm delayed its $500 million sale to Pacific Century Group for the second time in two months as the company awaits regulatory approvals.

The divestiture of AIG's investment unit, originally scheduled to close in December and then pushed to January 31, will happen by the end of this month, according to Ryan O'Keeffe, a spokesman for the New York-based fund manager. The unit, which was renamed PineBridge Investments, operates in about 30 countries and managed $89.7 billion as of September.

PineBridge has "concluded all but a handful of regulatory approvals and some separation activities," O'Keeffe said yesterday in an e-mailed statement. "It is our intention to finalise these few open items over the next five to ten days. For accounting reasons, however, we are likely to close the transaction at February month end."

AIG, which is selling businesses to repay loans within its $182.3 billion government bailout, has secured deals to raise more than $12 billion since its 2008 rescue. Hong Kong billionaire Richard Li's Pacific Century agreed in September to pay about $500 million for the subsidiary, parts of which had previously been called AIG Global Investment Corp.

PineBridge chief executive Win Neuger said in a December 15 letter to employees that some customers "have requested additional information and time to review documents" related to the sale, causing the company to push back its first target date for completing the deal. PineBridge has since received the client consents, O'Keeffe said today.

Neuger, 60, started at AIG in 1995 and was the insurer's investment chief until January 2009, when he was succeeded by Monika Machon. Neuger oversaw a securities-lending program that invested in sub-prime-mortgage securities. AIG's November 2008 bailout included as much as $22.5 billion from the Federal Reserve to stem losses from the securities-lending programme.

AIG remains the biggest single customer of PineBridge. The company and its subsidiaries made up 33 percent, or $29.4 billion, of the fund company's assets under management as of September.