CMKX --- CMKM Diamonds Inc --- ***Citigroup Demise Part II***

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Citigroup Update: Reports Emerge Of Possible Plan

Topics:Earnings | Nasdaq | NYSE | Stock Picks | Stock Market
Companies:Goldman Sachs Group Inc | Morgan Stanley | Citigroup IncBy Charlie Gasparino, On-Air Editor | 23 Nov 2008 | 01:03 PM ET

Citi officials are reportedly working on a plan that could include a capital injection from the Federal government—among other possible ideas. The details have yet to be hammered out and it's not clear when such a plan would be announced.

Officials from Citigroup [C 3.77 -0.94 (-19.96%) ] and the government had been discussing ways to stabilize the company's stock price over the weekend.

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 [MS 10.05 0.85 (+9.24%) ] or Goldman Sachs [GS 53.31 1.31 (+2.52%) ] 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.

Citigroup's Ills May Signal Market Isn't Near Bottom
Because Citigroup is a bank it has access the the Federal Reserves discount window, and because of its size, there is virtually no possibility of the bank failing and filing for bankruptcy as investment bank Lehman Brothers did. "Citigroup is too big to fail; the government wont allow that because the firm is involves in so many business both institutional and consumer around the world," said one bond trader with detailed knowledge of Citigroup's operations.

Investor fear remains deep despite one-day rally
But the lack of confidence coupled by the falling stock price could pose other problems, such as a run on bank deposits, where worried depositors yank their money from their Citigroup accounts, or investors pulling their funds from their Smith Barney brokerage accounts. A Citigroup spokesman declined to say if the company is experiencing either of those scenarios.

For that reason, Citigroup officials continued to work over the weekend to possibly unveil some sort of plan of action by Monday morning. "Everyone knows saving Citigroup is important to saving the economy, but no one knows what to do," said one person close to the firm.

Copyright 2008 Reuters.