By Cathy Chan and Karl Lester M. Yap

TAIPAN Henry Sy’s Banco de Oro, the Ayalas’ Bank of the Philippine Islands, and the Manulife groups are the preferred bidders for Philippine American Life Insurance and General Insurance Co., four people with knowledge of the matter said.

The final offers were due Feb. 23, the people said, asking not to be identified because the talks are private. The unit might be sold for between $800 million and $900 million, two of the people said.

Philam Life’s ailing parent, the American International Group, has struck deals to raise more than $2.3 billion so far by selling businesses from Connecticut to the Philippines, seeking to pay down $38.9 billion borrowed from the US government in December. The insurer, once the world’s biggest, said Thursday it was looking for potential buyers for its Tokyo headquarters building.

“AIG’s business in the Philippines is one of the most recognizable brands in the country,” said Rafael Garchitorena, Manila-based analyst at Deutsche Bank AG. “Buying the franchise can jump-start anybody’s attempts to expand their business. You will instantaneously be number one.”

Philam Life president Jose Cuisia declined to comment, citing disclosure rules. David Monfried, a New York-based spokesman at AIG, also declined to comment.

The Philippine unit, the nation’s largest insurer, has stockholders’ equity, or assets minus liabilities, of P49.5 billion, according to its Web site.

Banco de Oro had teamed up with Generali, Europe’s third-largest insurer, and Malaysia’s Kuok Group to bid for AIG’s Philippine unit, the people said. BPI, on the other hand, had joined Prudential, Britain’s second-biggest insurer by market value, the people said. Edward Brewster, spokesman for London-based Prudential, declined to comment, as did Laurie Lupton of Toronto-based Manulife.

“We love all of Asia, and we love Japan,” said Manulife chief investment officer Donald Guloien, who will become chief executive in May, in response to a Bloomberg query about the company’s bid for AIG’s Philippine assets.

Bank of the Philippine Islands president Aurelio Montinola didn’t respond to an e-mail and calls to his office. Banco de Oro president Nestor Tan didn’t respond to a mobile-phone text message.

The Yuchengco Group, the first to publicly express interest in Philam Life, dropped out of the race after being informed that Philam Life’s sale would also include Philam Life’s pension plan subsidiary.

AIG is selling as much as two-thirds of itself to repay a government loan after losses tied to credit default swaps forced the US to rescue the New York-based company. The Tokyo building it’s putting on the market has 15 stories and 404,294 square feet and lies in Marunouchi, Japan’s most expensive business district.

The company last month agreed to sell its Philippine retail bank and auto-lending unit to East West Banking Corp. for $48.5 million. The deal to sell PhilAm Savings Bank Inc., PhilAm Auto Finance & Leasing Inc., and PFL Holdings Inc. is expected to be completed in the second quarter.

The insurer is also selling its Alico Japan, AIG Star Life Insurance Co., and AIG Edison Life Insurance Co. units in Asia, and has started soliciting offers for its life insurance businesses in the rest of the region.

In December, AIG agreed to sell its Hartford Steam Boiler Inspection & Insurance Co. unit to Munich Re for $742 million, about a third less than the company paid for it eight years ago. Hartford Steam Boiler is based in the Connecticut city of the same name. Bloomberg