MetLife tells Alico it'll grow, post-AIG deal (Update)

As expected, MetLife has agreed to pay $15.5 billion in cash and stock for Alico, the Wilmington-based international life insurance division of American International Group, which is trying to pay back its many debts to the U.S. Treasury after the government bailed out AIG's financial division, and its trading partners led by Goldman Sachs, in 2008.

AIG statement on Alico here, previous Alico sale notes here and here.

Alico employs around 400 at its Wilmington headquarters. After joining AIG execs from New York in a meeting with the Delaware workers, spokeswoman Claire Burns told me MetLife plans to grow Alico, not shrink it.

That's also what happened at another local ex-AIG unit. 21st Century Insurance Group, purchased for $1.9 billion by Zurich Financial Services' Farmers Group Inc. last summer, hired 100 call-center and IT workers last fall to beef up its auto insurance center on Beaver Valley Road between Chadds Ford and Wilmington last fall. After a year of uncertainty, "it's a very exciting opportunity for 21st Century to offer these positions within the community that we serve," HR chief Terri Clark told me at the time.