Monday, April 21, 2008

Citigroup reports loss on writedowns, credit costs

(Bloomberg) - Citigroup Inc. posted a $5.11-billion loss today and cut 9,000 jobs, sending its shares up as much as 7 percent in New York trading.

Citigroup, the biggest U.S. bank by assets, reported almost $16 billion of writedowns and increased bad loan reserves as customers fell behind on home, car and credit-card payments.

U.S. index futures rose and the dollar advanced against the euro after Citigroup announced the results, fueling investor optimism that the credit-market contraction may be easing.

Citigroup climbed $1.40, or 5.8 percent, to $25.43 at 10:18 a.m. in New York Stock Exchange composite trading, after surging as high as $25.80 earlier today.

The bank's writedowns and credit losses from the collapse of the subprime mortgage market now total almost $40 billion, more than Zurich-based UBS AG and Merrill Lynch. Vikram Pandit, Citigroup's chief executive officer, has bailed out about 10 investment funds, replaced his chief risk officer and raised $30 billion to replenish capital since he succeeded Charles O. "Chuck" Prince in December.

Pandit's finance chief, Gary Crittenden, said today that the bank would eliminate 9,000 jobs in the next 12 months. That includes 2,000 of the 6,200 cuts the bank has already announced.

news source :

No comments: