Citigroup Reports $8.3 Billion Loss, Splits Into Two

[Joseph T. Burkeson, CMI]

I don't know whether this is part of the Bush Administration farewell plan or toxic legacy package, but I am sure you can guess who in this deal ends up with the @ssets, and who ends up with the sh!tty end of the stick. We are so screwn!

Citigroup Reports $8.3 Billion Loss, Splits Into Two

Jan. 16 (Bloomberg) -- Citigroup Inc. posted an $8.29 billion loss, twice as much as analysts estimated, and said it will split in two under Chief Executive Officer Vikram Pandit’s plan to rebuild a capital base eroded by the credit crisis.

Citigroup fell to the lowest level in 16 years in New York trading and has tumbled 48 percent this year. Pandit will undo the legacy of former CEO Sanford “Sandy” Weill by creating Citicorp to house the New York-based company’s global bank, and Citi Holdings, for “non-core” assets, including $301 billion of mortgages, bonds, corporate loans and other assets that the government agreed in November to guarantee.

“The financial supermarket was buried today,” said Bill Smith, founder of Citigroup shareholder Smith Asset Management Inc. in New York, who has repeatedly called for a breakup.

A dwindling capital cushion and sinking stock price forced the 52-year-old Pandit to abandon Citigroup’s decade-old strategy of providing investment advice and insurance alongside branch banking, stock underwriting and corporate lending. He’s shedding units to free up capital and save the bank from insolvency.

“They are going to try to home in on what’s worth something, and try and sell the pieces that they really can’t value,” Todd Colvin, vice president of MF Global Inc., said in a Bloomberg TV interview.

Excerpt: http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?p...Qd0&refer=home