American International Group (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

At one point, American International Group (AIG) required a $180 billion bailout from the federal government. That same insurance company recently announced its earnings of nearly $5.5 billion. Profit from the sale of International Lease Finance Corporation (ILFC), an aircraft leasing company, finally came into AIG's coffers. Of course, ILFC had long been considered one of its parent company's most valuable assets.

However, AIG called ILFC a "non-core" asset while selling the division to AerCap Holdings. AerCap Holdings is another aircraft leasing company based in the Netherlands and is considered one of the biggest such companies globally. For payment, AIG will receive $3 billion cash and 97.6 million shares of AerCap, which approximates to $5.4 billion. The proceeds will be used to close intercompany loans and will net AIG around $2.4 billion.

AIG's deal is expected to finalize during the second quarter of 2014. The company continues to dump its non-core assets. Before the AerCap agreement, AIG ended a share purchase agreement it held with Jumbo Acquisition Limited to sell 90% of ILFC's common stock. Since ILFC wasn't part of AIG's insurance operation, the company decided to get rid of this valuable but unnecessary division of its operations. AIG's focus will now shift back to insurance products.

Without a doubt, this is a great deal for AerCap in many ways. Investors agree with the sentiment because AerCap's share price surged on Monday. In fact, the price climbed nearly 35%, which was $10.00 above its highest mark in the past year. The stock is up almost 80% this year alone after all.

On the other hand, the deal didn't impact AIG nearly as much as it did AerCap. AIG's shared rose 2% after the deal was announced, and the insurer is only up 36.3% from its 2013 opening mark. Both companies are set to benefit from this deal either way.