Debevoise & Plimpton and Simpson Thacher & Bartlett have picked up lead roles on AIG's sale of its life insurance business in Taiwan to a Hong Kong-based investment company.

Primus Financial will pay $2.15bn (£1.35bn) to acquire AIG's Nan Shan unit, Taiwan's third-largest life insurance company by total premiums.

Debevoise is advising AIG on the deal, after the firm also worked on the $500m (£313m) sale of the troubled insurance giant's external fund management business last month. Debevoise has also advised AIG on at least three other recent matters.

New York partner John Vasily and counsel Michael Devins are leading the firm's team, which also includes London tax partner Richard Ward, New York executive compensation partner Jonathan Lewis, New York tax partner Seth Rosen and New York intellectual property (IP) counsel Judith Church.

Primus turned to regular outside counsel at Simpson Thacher on the acquisition, with partner Brian Stadler and Hong Kong partner Philip Culhane Stadler leading the US firm's team. Other Simpson Thacher lawyers on the deal included Sinead O'Shea on finance issues, Maripat Alpuche and Adam Signy on corporate matters, Robert Holo on tax matters, Andrea Wahlquist on executive compensation, and Kerry Konrad on IP.

The Nan Shan sale is the latest in a string of asset sales by AIG which began after the US Government last year bailed out the insurance giant with a loan package worth up to $182.5bn (£114bn).

Primus chairman Robert Morse said that his company plans to use Nan Shan's existing insurance business as a launching pad to build a leading Taiwan-based pan-Asian financial services provider.

According to Reuters, Primus will use bank loans and equity from itself and a Chinese partner to pay for the AIG unit.