The U.S. Department of Treasury said on Thursday that it plans to make a profit for taxpayers by selling it shares of Citigroup, as it offloaded a 5% stake in the company netting taxpayers more than $1 billion in profit.
The government said that it had received $41.6 billion dollars from Citigroup, Inc (NYSE: C) through stock sales and repayments, after providing a $45 billion bailout to the firm via the Troubled Asset Relief Program.
The agency said that it plans to sell $2.25 billion worth of trust preferred securities (TRUPS) in the near future and that it had sold an additional 1.5 billion additional shares of Citigroup common stock since July. The government received an average share price of $3.93, making a profit on the $3.25 per share that it paid for a stake in the bank during the financial crisis in 2008. The government made a profit of $1.02 billion from the sales, which were managed by Morgan Stanley (NYSE: MS).
Citigroup Inc. (Citigroup) is a global diversified financial services holding company. The Company provides consumers, corporations, governments and institutions with a range of financial products and services. As of December 31, 2009, Citigroup had approximately 200 million customer accounts and did business in more than 140 countries. Citigroup operates through two primary business segments: Citicorp, consisting of its Regional Consumer Banking (RCB) businesses and Institutional Clients Group (ICG), and Citi Holdings, consisting of its Brokerage and Asset Management (BAM), Local Consumer Lending (LCL), and Special Asset Pool (SAP). In April 2010, Barclays PLC acquired Italian credit card business of Citibank International Bank plc. In May 2010, the Company announced the creation of a new Collateral Management Services unit within its Securities and Fund Services business.
Shares of Citigroup, Inc (NYSE: C) traded down 0.26% during mid-day trading on Thursday.
