Citigroup Talks, But Nothing 'Walks' To Stabilize

Officials from Citigroup and government officials continue to discuss ways to stabilize the company's stock price over the weekend but have yet to come up with a plan to install confidence into the firm that has seen its shares battered into penny-stock territory and raising the prospect of a government bailout, people close to the firm say.

As of Saturday afternoon, the general consensus between officials from Citi and government officials from the US Treasury department and US Federal Reserve is that the government will not takeover Citigroup in the way it took control of AIG—by lending the firm massive amounts of money and in return assuming a huge equity position.

Government officials fear taking over Citigroup would create a precedent: Unlike AIG, Citigroup's balance sheet is relatively healthy, with relatively strong levels of capital particularly compared to most of its competitors.

Still, officials from the Treasury and Citigroup are unsure what it would take to restore confidence in the company, including a possible smaller capital injection or some sort of statement that Citigroup is financially sound.

For that reason, Citigroup officials are continuing to explore possible merger possibilities and a spin off of some of Citigroup's businesses, even as CEP Vikram Pandit publicly stated the sale of the firm's massive and coveted broker business, Smith Barney is off the table, these people say.

Both officials at Citigroup and in the government concede the situation facing Citigoup is daunting. Because of Citigroup's size and scope—it operates in just about every country and competes in just about every financial business, the company's survival is a national concern.

Citigroup has spent the past week telling investors that its capital position is strong, but investors have lost confidence in the current management led by CEO Vikram Pandit who has been in the job less than a year, and the firm's board, which appeared to ignore widespread calls by analysts to integrate the firms operations and slash its massive workforce until recently.

Meanwhile, various merger possibilities seem slim. A deal with investment banks Morgan Stanley or Goldman Sachs would create massive overlap and would lead to huge layoffs. There aren't many banks with a strong deposit base that Citigroup can buy with its depressed stock price.

Pandit, for his part, has cut the workforce to 350,000 from 375,000 and just announced another 50,000-job cut by early 2009. But for investors, those moves were too little too late. Nearly a year ago, Citigroup's share traded at around $50. On Friday they traded at $3.77 and failed to rebound even as the Dow Jones Industrial Average of large company stocks spiked nearly 500 points on the news that President-elect Barack Obama will name NY Fed President Tim Geithner as his new Treasury Secretary.

sumber : http://www.cnbc.com/id/27859019