(Bloomberg) – American International Group Inc., the insurer that may need a fourth bailout by the U.S. government, scrapped a separate sale of its Philippine life insurance unit and will make it part of its AIA group.

“It was appropriate at this time to include the Philippine American Life and General Insurance Co. in the new AIA structure as the rest of AIA is being separated from AIG and positioned as an independent operation,” AIG’s Philippine unit said in an e- mailed statement today, without elaborating.
AIG Chief Executive Officer Edward Liddy is seeking to sell its American International Assurance Co., which includes most of its life business in Asia, to raise money to repay the loan portion of a $150 billion government rescue.

AIG had previously said it was selling the Philippine unit, the nation’s largest insurer, separately to raise funds to help repay the debt. Prudential Plc, Assicurazioni Generali SpA, and Manulife Financial Corp. were the preferred bidders for the unit, four people with knowledge of the matter said last month.

AIG didn’t say why it was canceling the sale. Cecille Fontanilla, a spokesperson for the Philippine unit, couldn’t be reached for comment.

The company last month agreed to sell its Philippine retail bank and auto-lending unit to East West Banking Corp. for $48.5 million.