U.S. Treasury Plans to Sell Citigroup Stake in 2010 (Update1)

March 29 (Bloomberg) -- The U.S. Treasury Department plans to sell the government’s 27 percent stake in Citigroup Inc. this year, bringing the bank one step closer to leaving the government’s bailout program.

“Treasury intends to sell its Citigroup common shares into the market through various means in an orderly and measured fashion,” the Treasury said in a statement in Washington today. “The manner, amount and timing of the sales under the plan is dependent upon a number of factors.”

Based on the closing share price of $4.31 on March 26, the Treasury’s stake has a market value of $33.2 billion, or a paper profit of $8.2 billion. Morgan Stanley is advising the Treasury on the sale, the department said. The disposition will be “subject to market conditions” and spread out “over the course of 2010,” the department said.

U.S. Treasury Plans to Sell Citigroup Stake in 2010 (Update1) - BusinessWeek

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The plan announced today doesn’t include trust preferred securities or warrants for Citigroup’s common stock that the Treasury holds. The government owns $5.3 billion in Citigroup trust preferred securities yielding 8 percent annually as well as warrants that allow it to buy the bank’s stock.

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chevydriver1123 said:

A good step but it doenst go far enough because of this;

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