American International Group Inc. (AIG) units across Asia reported a slowdown in policy cancellations on 18 September and some denied reports of receiving buyout offers as focus shifted to the future of the Asian operations.

AIG, which has sizable businesses in Asia, hasn’t said how it intends to repay the US$85-billion loan it got from the U.S. government under a takeover plan.

However, reports of assets for sale in the region have started to emerge.

AIG’s Hong Kong unit said Thursday the parent has no current plan to sell the operations there after a report that the unit’s senior managers were planning to take a controlling stake in the company.

“We have no management buyout plan now,” Derek Yung, senior vice president of American International Assurance Co., or AIA, said.

“Our financial situation is absolutely sound and there is no plan to sell off the assets from Hong Kong operations at this stage.”

AIG’s life insurance arm in Australia also said it had received no approaches from third parties interested in buying the local business.

A spokesman for AIG Life (Australia) said AIG’s woes had little immediate impact on the unit.

“Over the past couple of days, we’ve had a 50% increase in call volumes to our call center but the result of that has been less than a dozen cancellations,” of policies, the spokesman said.

South Korea’s top financial regulator, the Financial Supervisory Service, said policy cancellations at AIG’s local units have decreased after the bailout plan was announced in the U.S.

Meanwhile, AIG’s life and non-life insurance units in the country said they aren’t seeking management buyouts to dissociate themselves from the parent company.

Country regulators and AIG units around Asia have been seeking to ease concerns from policyholders, who are still trying to grasp the impact of the insurer’s woes on their pockets.

In a statement on its China Web site, AIA said operations in the country will continue as usual.

It said its business is well capitalized and meets local regulators’ requirements.

Even though AIA in Singapore has repeatedly said it can meet all its obligations to policyholders, people continued to queue outside the office of the AIG unit on 18 September.

An AIA staff member said around 800 people visited the office on 17 September.

Still, some were seeking to get out.

“I’m withdrawing my policies. Singaporeans don’t have faith in AIA anymore,” said Liew Poh Yoke, a policyholder standing in line. On 18 September, AIA said it would reinstate life insurance policies without penalty to customers in Singapore who withdrew policies this week.

The statement said that less than 0.1% of outstanding policies in the city-state had been cancelled.

In Taiwan, talks that AIG’s unit Nan Shan Life Insurance Co. was disposing of its local bond holdings triggered heavy selling of 10-year bonds by foreign banks and local brokerages, according to traders.

However, an official at the unit, 95% owned by the U.S. insurer, said she wasn’t aware of any sale.

AIG’s India unit said its operations are normal and joint ventures with Tata Group are adequately capitalized.