The U.S. Treasury Department said on 26th May that it plans to sell another 1.5 billion of Citigroup Inc shares that it acquired during the financial crisis.

The Treasury has already completed an earlier sale of 1.5 billion shares and received gross proceeds of $6.2 billion and is left with 6.2 billion more of Citigroup shares.

From in.news.yahoo.com:

The government gave the bank $45 billion in bailout money in 2008 and 2009. Citi has paid back $20 billion in preferred shares, but another $25 billion was converted to common stock last year.

Citigroup traded for less than $1 a share during the darkest days of the financial crisis when investors were worried about its survival. On Wednesday, the stock closed up 2 percent at $3.86 on the New York Stock Exchange.

A Citi spokesman said the company was pleased Treasury was making significant progress in profitably selling its shares.

Treasury once again named Morgan Stanley its sales agent. Morgan Stanley will have discretionary authority to sell the additional 1.5 billion shares under certain undisclosed parameters.

Because of a blackout period ahead of Citigroup’s second-quarter earnings release, Treasury said it would end the program on June 30, even if it has not yet sold all 1.5 billion Citigroup shares.

The Treasury acquired 7.7 billion of Citigroup shares last year at $3.25 per share.

Tags: Citigroup Inc, financial crisis, New York Stock Exchange

This entry was posted on Saturday, May 29th, 2010 at 2:38 am and is filed under Online Presence. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.