CITIGROUP INTENDS to use the harsh climate in the financial markets to seek out opportunistic acquisitions, according to Citigroup chief financial officer Gary Crittenden. The plan stands in spite of Citi losing out on its bid to acquire Wachovia.
On a conference call to discuss Citi’s third-quarter loss of $2.8 billion (€2.09 billion), Mr Crittenden said Citi had explored three acquisitions in recent weeks, two of which had been publicly disclosed.
In addition to Wachovia, Citi was known to be interested in Washington Mutual, a failing bank that was gobbled up by JP Morgan Chase in late September.
He would not divulge the identity of the third bank, but it is rumoured to be a major regional bank such as National City.
As for the US government’s infusion of $25 billion in capital into Citi – part of the $125 billion programme announced this week requiring nine banks to issue preferred shares to the federal government in return for the new capital – Mr Crittenden said Citi had not decided how to deploy the sum.
“This represents in many ways something we had not counted on, something we hadn’t planned on,” he said. “It does present the possibility of taking advantage of opportunities that might otherwise be closed to us.”
Mr Crittenden said Citi would focus on its five core businesses: wealth management, credit cards, consumer banking, securities and banking, and global transaction services. Citi would be open to using the $25 billion government injection to build up those businesses instead of funding an acquisition, he said.
“We won’t treat this like a windfall and in some way back off the other measures we have under way,” Mr Crittenden said.
Citi’s $2.8 billion loss, which translates to 60 cents per share, was fuelled by dismal results in the credit card business and charges in mortgage-related assets that have been a drag on earnings for the past year.
The bank reported a $902 million loss for the quarter, against a $1.4 billion profit a year earlier.
Revenues in the credit card division dropped from $6.3 billion to $3.8 billion.
Mr Crittenden said credit card losses tended to track the nation’s unemployment rate, which has grown in recent months as US economic activity has slowed.
The group’s quarterly revenues were $16.7 billion, down 23 per cent. Citi took approximately $4 billion in writedowns associated with subprime mortgage-related and structured investment vehicle assets. One bright spot was Citi’s transaction services unit, whose revenues grew 20 per cent to $2.5 billion and profits jumped 38 per cent to $817 million. – (Financial Times service)
