Citi Weighs Its Options, Including Firm's Sale

WSJ ^ | 11/21/08 | DAVID ENRICH

[TigerLikesRooster]

Citi Weighs Its Options, Including Firm's Sale

By DAVID ENRICH

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.

The internal discussions are at a preliminary stage and don't signal that Citigroup's board and management are backing down from their insistence that the New York company has ample capital, funding and strategic direction, these people said. But with the stock down another 26% Thursday, its worst one-day percentage decline ever, Citigroup officials have decided they need to reckon with a range of scenarios that were unthinkable only weeks ago

[TigerLikesRooster]

Who is going to buy Citi?

[TigerLikesRooster]

Ping!

[JasonC]

At this share price, Citi could be taken private tomorrow. It has $45 billion *per quarter* in cash flow from operations, in the worst financial climate in history. Buy in the whole thing and tell the shorts and CDS speculators to stuff themselves.

[Opinionated Blowhard]

So much for the “one stop shop” for everything financial and insurance. I remember when they were creating this Frankenstein. Sandy Weil cobbled it together and it never really worked other than as a collection of pieces. It should be broken up.

[Zuben Elgenubi]

Wow, isn’t Citi a Rockefeller bank, incorporated from the original Manhattan Bank charter?

[TigerLikesRooster]

If that happens, would it create another Porsche-Volkswagen flap? I am just curious.

[Deo volente]

Who is going to buy Citi?

The Bank of Uncle Sam, with headquarters in Washington D.C.
They've got loads of money (to print up).

[HereInTheHeartland]

So they are not going to sue my company anymore for $60 billion??

[BGHater]

Bernanke loves to work on Sundays. I wonder if he is gonna buy it on Sunday.

[JasonC]

I was just looking at that. There are 138 million shares short that we know of. Options contracts might make that a round 200 million or so. But that is only about 4% of the company. For the amount squeezed from the shorts to equal the present market cap, the stock would have to recover to around $25. It is fairly worth $50 in normal times, but these aren't and it isn't worth $50 with the alternatives on offer, elsewhere.

But if I were them, I'd just start doing it, no announcements, no fanfare, no "here is how we will save the bank". Just start. In as little as 50 days, ever single share (not held by insiders if you like) could be retired. You could literally buy the entire thing before Obama is sworn in, even if it doesn't decline another penny. Without using a dime of money besides what the loan book in throwing off.

[angkor]

>>>>>Who is going to buy Citi? <<<<<<

Maybe the Bank of China or China Merchants Bank. /semi-sarc

[ken21]

‘xcuse me, but i can’t get over the irony that citi was

angry at wells fargo for beating them out to buy wachovia.

[B4Ranch]

Me

[MEpajamaMONSTER]

that was j.p.morgan/chase

[NVDave]

Do you think there’s anyone smart enough there to think of this?

And could they do this without an SEC requirement of disclosure?

[ken21]

>Wachovia logo:

>WELLS FARGO MERGER PROPOSAL MOVES FORWARD

>Wachovia CEO wrote an open letter to clients and shareholders on October 22, 2008, the day Wachovia reported its third quarter 2008 financial results.

that’s one link, even the wachovia ceo says his firm is being merged with wells fargo:

http://wachovia.com/misc/0,,2149,00.html

there are dozens of links concerning wells’ buy out of wachovia:

http://search.yahoo.com/search?p=wells+fargo+wachovia+merger&fr=yfp-t-501-s&toggle=1&cop=mss&ei=UTF-8

[RockinRight]

Break it up into about 7 regional banks, a credit card division, and a real estate auction house. :)

[RockinRight]

Then why are they trying to buy Chevy Chase Bank?

[FunkyZero]

This one has me down. I got in at 19+. the company has the assets and it looked like a hellofa bargain. Dang... I hope this turns around.

[Orange1998]

They don’t have until Sunday. My guess the lines at the teller starts tomorrow. My guess a deal in the works tonight. I would not expect much since Lehman started at 2.00.