Leave a Comment

Citigroup (C) Finally Gets It Right By Considering Auction Block
24/7 Wall Street — ... According toThe Wall Street Journal, "Executives at Citigroup Inc., faced with a plunging stock price, began weighing the possibility of auctioning off pieces of the financial giant or even selling the company outright, according to people familiar with the matter." ...

Citigroup to Hold Unscheduled Board Meeting Friday
Calculated Risk — From the WSJ: Citi Weighs Its Options, Including Firm's Sale Executives at Citigroup ... began weighing the possibility of auctioning off pieces of the financial giant or even selling the company outright ... Citigroup's board of directors is scheduled to have a formal meeting Friday to discuss the options ... In addition to pondering a move to sell the entire company to another bank, executives have started exploring the possibility of selling off parts of the firm, including the Smith Barney retail brokerage, the global credit-card division and the ...

Citi “weighs options”
Option ARMageddon — The Citigroup Death Watch continues, according to the Journal: The sell-off in Citigroup shares has led executives to start laying out possible contingency plans. In addition to pondering a move to sell the entire company to another bank, executives have started exploring the possibility of selling off parts of the firm, including the Smith Barney retail brokerage, the global credit-card division and the transaction-services unit, which is one of Citigroup’s most lucrative and fast-growing businesses, the people said. ...

Citi Considers Selling Itself, in Whole or In Parts (And is Barking Up Wrong Tree re Shorts)
naked capitalism — ... Citi's woes. The data is from Short Alert Reserach: Financial Sector (933 Companies) – Short Interest as a percentage of Shares Outstanding 07/10/08 6.29 07/28/08 6.12 08/12/08 5.90 08/26/08 5.83 09/10/08 5.72 09/25/08 5.01 10/09/08 4.26 10/28/08 4.08 A decrease of 35.1% in the short position from 7/10/08 to 10/28/08. Net buying every single period. Total current value of short position: $64.8 Billion. From the Wall Street Journal: Executives at Citigroup Inc., faced with a plunging stock ...

Citi weighs possible break-up and sale
FT Alphaville — Executives at Citigroup, faced with a plunging stock price, began weighing the possibility of auctioning off pieces of the financial giant or even selling the company outright, reports the WSJ. The internal discussions do not signal that Citi’s board and management are backing down from their insistence that the group has ample capital and strategic direction, but with the stock down another 26% Thursday - its worst one-day decline - they are considering scenarios that were unthinkable only weeks ago. Citi’s board is to meet Friday to discuss the options. The stock slide came, ...

End of the beginning?
Crooked Timber — The failure of Citigroup, which looks increasingly likely to happen in the near future, would mark the end of the beginning of the financial crisis. Until now, the prevailing view has been that the crisis and recession will pass in a year or so, after which things will go back, more or less, to the way they were, with a few less financial institutions, and a bit more regulation. A Citigroup failure would put paid to that idea. Citi is not only too big to fail, it’s too big to rescue with any of the half-measures that have been tried so far. Only outright nationalization is feasible, ...

Is a Sale on Citigroup’s Mind?
DealBook — Will Citigroup , after losing more than one-quarter of its market value on growing worries over whether it has enough capital to withstand billions of dollars of potential losses, raise the for-sale-sign? Conflicting reports surfaced Thursday over whether the banking giant was mulling options, including a sale of parts of the company or a merger with another firm, after its stock fell 50 percent this week. Reports from The Wall Street Journal and Reuters said that, despite new support from its largest individual investor, Citigroup is weighing the possibility of auctioning off pieces of its limping financial empire or even selling the company outright. The ...

All Princely Sums Welcomed
Trader Daily Combined Feed — ... executives were locked in meetings Thursday to hash out a stabilization strategy. Chief Executive Vikram Pandit scheduled a conference call for 8 a.m. Friday to discuss the situation with senior managers. A Citigroup spokeswoman said in a statement Thursday evening: "Citi has a very strong capital and liquidity position" and is "focused on executing our strategy," which includes cutting expenses and selling assets. "We believe the benefits will be seen over time." Continue reading on WSJ.com

Citigroup Management Looks Overmatched
The Peridot Capitalist — From the WSJ: "The selloff in Citigroup shares has led executives to start laying out possible contingency plans. In addition to pondering a move to sell the entire company to another bank, executives have started exploring the possibility of selling off parts of the firm, including the Smith Barney retail brokerage, the global credit-card division and the transaction-services unit, which is one of Citigroup's most lucrative and fast-growing businesses, the people said."Sound familiar? Lehman Brothers was stunned by their tremendous stock price ...

Stocks in the news: C, DELL, CRM, GPS, GM, F, FNM
BloggingStocks — Filed under: Earnings reports, Deals, Dell (DELL), Ford Motor (F), General Motors (GM), Citigroup Inc. (C), Federal Natl Mtge (FNM), Gap Inc (GPS), salesforce.com inc (CRM)Citigroup Inc. (NYSE: C) shares jumped over 12.5% in pre-market trade (7:34 am) after the The Wall Street Journal reported that the second-largest U.S. bank by assets may be weighing a sale of all or part of the company, including the Smith Barney brokerage, the credit card unit and the transaction services unit. Citi shares have lost over 25% of their value Thursday and ...

Citi wants short sellers stopped, now
BloggingStocks — Filed under: Deals, Short stories, Citigroup Inc. (C)This week, the shareholders of Citigroup, Inc (NYSE: C) have undergone extreme trauma as the stock price plunged below $5. It's hard to believe that this company was once worth $200 billion and had a reliable dividend. Now, according to the Wall Street Journal [a paid publication], the company is having an emergency board meeting today and there is even talk of selling out to another bank. In the meantime, Citi is trying to go on the offensive against short-sellers, who make money when share prices fall. The company is going to the ...

The Citigroup Betting Pool
The Baseline Scenario — I’ve been catching up with my family and not on top of the news the last 24 hours or so - wasn’t there a time that the financial world shut down on weekends? - but for those of you who may not have a feed reader clogged with economics blogs (first, good for you), I wanted to point out some of the various outcomes you may want to bet on when ...