As part of an ongoing effort to restructure its business operations, Citigroup (C) has put CitiFinancial, its consumer finance unit, up for sale.
And according to a report by Bloomberg, there is no shortage of potential buyers.
The list of prospective companies is headlined by the Spanish bank – Banco Santander SA (STD). BlackRock Inc. (BLK) is also one of over 10 private equity firms who are said to be preparing bids.
On the other hand, Citigroup’s former President, Robert Willumstad, is said to head another bidding group through his private-equity firm Brysam Global Partners. This group is said to comprise Blackstone Group LP (NYSE: BX), Carlyle Group, Thomas H. Lee Partners LP and WL Ross & Co.
Last December, CitiFinancial announced its intention to rename its U.S. Full Service Network business, which will begin operating under the new name ‘OneMain Financial’ in summer 2011. The re-branding is to give the company an identity that befits the company’s image and activity. The company also said that the new name reflects a localized business model and commitment to customers.
Citigroup was in bad shape during the financial crisis and had to resort to government bailout money. Since then, the company has been executing a number of strategic reengineering efforts. It has termed CitiCorp as its core operating unit and Citi Holdings as its non-core unit.
Citigroup intends to dispose of its non-core operations and CitiFinancial happens to be a part of this non-core unit. Hence, the change in name was viewed as a step toward the divestiture. Another biggie, Wells Fargo & Co. (WFC) has also disposed of its non-bank consumer-finance network as a part of its restructuring initiatives.
