Debevoise & Plimpton and Linklaters have taken lead roles on AIG's $6bn (£3.8bn) placement of shares in its Hong Kong spin-off, AIA Group, reports The Asian Lawyer.

Debevoise took the lead for for insurance giant AIG, which sold the shares to institutional investors on 5 March as a way of partially paying back the US Government for a $182bn (£116bn) bailout in 2008, following the onset of the global financial crisis.

The US firm's team was headed up by Hong Kong partner Drew Dutton and New York partner Peter Loughran.

Meanwhile, Linklaters advised the underwriters of the share placement – which included Deutsche Bank, Goldman Sachs and Citigroup – with Hong Kong partner Pamela Shores heading up the magic circle firm's team.

Hong Kong firm Charltons Solicitors advised the issuer on local law aspects of the deal.

AIG spun off AIA in 2010, and subsequently raised $20.5bn (£13bn) by listing the company on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange. The most recent sale represents about 14% of the issued capital in AIA, which operates in 14 Asian jurisdictions. The deal reduces AIG's stake in the Hong Kong insurer to 19%.

Debevoise has advised AIG on numerous deals including the initial public offering of AIA in 2010, which completed shortly after Dutton, who led the team advising AIG and AIA, relocated to Hong Kong from the firm's Paris office.

The role for Linklaters comes after the firm advised the underwriters on L'Air Liquide's $400m (£256m) French 'dim sum' bond last year, which listed on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange on 19 September, marking the the first renminbi-denominated bond by a French company.

The Asian Lawyer is a US affiliate title of Legal Week.