Citibank (NYSE: C), which is currently 27% owned by the federal government, has agreed to sell its real estate unit, Citi Property Investors, to private equity investor Apollo Management LP.
Under the terms of the deal, Apollo will acquire 65 real estate investments that span across 26 countries with a total net asset value of just under $3.5 billion. Apollo will approximately triple the value of its property portfolio under the deal, according to a report from Bloomberg citing un-named industry insiders.
The U.S. Treasury owns just over one-quarter of Citibank after injecting $45 billion for of capital, $20 billion of which the bank has since paid back. Regulators are putting pressure on Citibank to slim down and sell off its non-core assets to raise capital to repay the federal government. ‘
In another move to raise capital, Citibank has placed $2 billion worth of trust preferred securities, known as “Trups”, for sale.
