Earlier this week, Jocelynn Drake reported that American International Group, Inc. (AIG: sentiment, chart, options) had a line-up of interested bidders for its Japanese life insurance businesses. However, it seems as though CEO Edward Liddy is now trying to lower expectations for the potential sale. At a presentation today in Hong Kong, Liddy warned that "These are challenging times to undertake divestitures," and said he doesn't plan to meet with potential buyers until January. He didn't mention the Japanese units directly, focusing instead on the prospects for AIG's aircraft-leasing business, International Lease Finance Corp.

As for former AIG chief Maurice "Hank" Greenberg, Liddy had some choice words. He credited Greenberg for building an "awesome company," but added, "Anyone who runs a company for 35 years may have stayed too long. [Greenberg] didn't keep us contemporary in terms of risk measures."

Liddy also brushed off a report printed Wednesday in The Wall Street Journal, which asserted that AIG is on the hook for $10 billion to various Wall Street firms as a result of speculative trades gone bad. While he didn't deny the steep losses, he simply observed, "There is nothing new there."

In early trading, AIG is fractionally higher. Option traders continue to prefer call options on the stock as it trades south of the 2 level. Yesterday, investors on the International Securities Exchange (ISE) and the Chicago Board Options Exchange (CBOE) bought to open 1,767 calls on AIG, compared to just 4 puts.