The State of New York will attempt to sell Midland Insurance in the first-ever sale of an insurer to private investors.

Midland, which is being liquidated with almost $1 billon of assets and $2.9 billion of liabilities, will attempt to be sold by the state’s liquidation board, New York Insurance Superintendent Eric Dinallo told Reuters.

Midland, an insurer and reinsurer, owes $2.9 billion of unsettled claims to thousands of policyholders nationwide, including corporations that paid claims to people exposed to HIV-tainted blood products, exposure to asbestos and faulty breast implants, Dinallo told the news service.

Dinallo said “never before has a court-appointed receiver engaged in the private sector to help speed up the distribution of assets” from an insurer in liquidation, according to the report.

New York’s Liquidation Bureau was named Midland’s liquidator in 1986 and a representative of the bureau told Reuters that private investors would only have to pay a percentage of the insurer’s liabilities, in the form of a guaranteed distribution to policyholders with resolved claims.

Policyholders would be paid a pro rata percentage of Midland’s profits above a certain amount, the representative said, with bids mainly being judged on the guaranteed distribution and profit sharing, according to the report.