Investors give Citi 12.5B dollars in cash

Photo: Investors give Citi 12.5B dollars in cash

Citi posted its first quarterly loss in 16 years in the fourth quarter, when the bank's mortgage portfolio lost $18.1 billion (EUR12.15 billion) in value.

The investment includes $6.88 billion (EUR4.62 billion) from the Government of Singapore Investment Corp. for a 4 percent stake. Others were: Capital Research Global Investors, Capital World Investors, the Kuwait Investment Authority, the New Jersey Division of Investment, shareholder Prince Alwaleed bin Talal of Saudi Arabia and former chief executive Sanford Weill and his family foundation.

Citigroup is a major American financial services company based in New York City , formed from the merger of Citicorp and Travelers Group on April 7, 1998. According to Forbes Global 2000 in March 2007, it is the largest company in the world with total assets of US $2.4 trillion (as of Sept 2007) The company employs 332,000 staff around the world, and holds over 200 million customer accounts in more than 100 countries.

It is a primary dealer in US Treasury securities and its stock has been a component of the Dow Jones Industrial Average since March 17, 1997 . Its single largest shareholder is Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, the investment arm of Abu Dhabi government. This sovereign wealth fund became the largest shareholder after it injected $7.5 billion of capital in late-2007 in exchange for a 4.9 percent stake in Citigroup after the bank announced significant write-offs to cover losses in the U.S. subprime mortgage market. The second largest shareholder with a 3.6 percent stake is Kingdom Holding Company owned by Prince Al-Waleed bin Talal of Saudi Arabia.

On December 11, 2007, Vikram Pandit was named Citigroup's CEO, while Sir Win Bischoff was named chairman. Charles Prince, the Chairman and CEO, had resigned on November 4, 2007. Between that time, Bischoff had served as interim CEO while Robert Rubin was chairman of the board.