Citigroup Inc., once the world’s biggest bank by market value, dropped below $1 in New York trading for the first time as investors lose confidence the shares can recover after more than $37.5 billion in losses and a government rescue.
Citigroup fell to $1.03 at 12:32 p.m. on the New York Stock Exchange after reaching 97 cents earlier today, marking an 85 percent decline this year and giving the New York-based company a market value of $5.5 billion. At its peak in late 2006, Citigroup stock was worth $55.70, for a market value of $277.2 billion.
Citigroup, run by Chief Executive Officer Vikram Pandit, is now the 184th biggest bank by market value, behind Malaysia’s Bumiputra-Commerce Holdings Bhd and Turkey’s Akbank TAS, in which Citigroup owns a 20 percent stake, according to data compiled by Bloomberg News.
Citigroup has reported more than $37.5 billion in net losses during the last five quarters and the U.S. government has provided the company with $45 billion. Last week, the government agreed to convert the preferred stock it owned in Citigroup to common shares, gaining a 36 percent stake in the company and boosting Citigroup’s buffer against future losses.
As of this posting (2:20PM EST) Citigroup was trading at $1.01
(Source: Bloomberg.com)
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4 Responses
I could have told you that if this Saudi prince Talal invests in it, that business is bankrupt.
That guy has an IQ of a Tomato.
So why is the government loaning them money or trying to get its shares. The whole idea of capitalism is that one gets rewarded for success, and punished for failures. It is “heads I win, tails you lose” which is what Citibank’s overpaid managers are claiming.
Citibank was run into the ground by Robert Rubin, Bill clinton’s Secretary of the Treasury, and former chairman of Goldman Sachs.
He is currently a top advisor to Obama– presumably giving a repeat performance.
Oh look at akuperma; he is not defending the president anymore. Of course sir that you forget that the president wants to give money to the banks as long as he can monitor how they spend it.
Say, Citigroup may be able to get more money if they go on sale in the local five and ten cents store. Oh, I forgot, Woolworth’s went bankrupt many years ago.