NEW YORK: American International Group Inc investors gathering for the insurer's annual meeting today are again waiting for a new chief executive officer to help return the company to profitability.

AIG, which is selling assets to repay a $182.5 billion US bailout, hired executive search firm Spencer Stuart to find a replacement for outgoing CEO Edward Liddy, according to two people familiar with the situation. Liddy, 63, said last month that he wanted to leave the New York-based company as soon as a successor is appointed.

A new leader "needs to show investors that there's something at the end of this and that they will survive", said Rose Grant, managing director at Boston-based Eastern Investment Advisors, which sold its AIG stock. "I can't imagine morale is the best right now."