Citi Plans $5 Bil. Stock Offering to Cut Fed Holdings
By wchung | 30 Jan, 2025

Citigroup is considering a plan in which the Treasury Department would sell part of its holdings in the bank, while the New York-based company would issue new shares to the public as part of a multibillion-dollar stock offering, The Wall Street Journal said, citing people familiar with the matter.

Citigroup executives plan to present the idea to the Treasury Department soon, the Journal said in a report published on its Web site Monday. Executives expect an offering could be made in the fourth quarter.

The Treasury Department got 7.7 billion shares of Citigroup stock last week in return for a chunk of its holdings of the bank’s preferred shares, which the federal government received when it invested $45 billion into Citigroup, the Journal said. The government holds a 34 percent stake in the bank, the paper said.

Citigroup may issue as much as $5 billion in new shares and use proceeds to redeem some of the preferred stock the Treasury is holding, the people said, according to the newspaper.

9/14/2009 10:28 PM The Associated Press