NEW YORK — Shares of American International Group’s long-awaited stock sale priced at $29 apiece late Tuesday to raise $8.7 billion, leaving the U.S. government with a tiny profit on the offering, the company and Treasury Department announced.

AIG will sell 100 million shares, while Treasury, the bailed-out insurer’s biggest shareholder, will offer 200 million.

The price is just a stone’s throw from $28.72 — the breakeven point for the nearly 1.7 billion shares held by the U.S. government. It is also at the low end of AIG’s planned range of $29 to $30 a share.

Earlier this month, the company’s board considered postponing a long-planned sale of its stock. But in the end, AIG (AIG, Fortune 500) and Treasury decided to move forward with the offering, although at much less than it had hoped for.

Back in 2008, the government agreed to help the giant insurer get back on its feet with a $180 billion lifeline.

AIG has been slowly working toward paying back that loan.

The company sold its life insurance division, Alico, to MetLife (MET, Fortune 500) for $16 billion. It also raised $20.5 billion through an initial public offering of its AIA life insurer, and sold two Japanese units to Prudential Financial […]