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Citigroup posts $4.3bn profit
17 Jul 2009Citigroup today posted a $4.28 billion (£2.6 billion) profit, buoyed by gains from selling control of its Smith Barney brokerage and beating analysts' estimates as the bank shed assets to compensate for loan losses.
The second-quarter profit was 49 cents a share, compared with a loss of $2.5 billion, a year earlier. Excluding the Smith Barney gain of $6.7 billion, Citigroup had an operating loss of about 27 cents a share.
Consumer and business loan delinquencies kept rising, giving Chief Executive Officer Vikram Pandit little relief from the financial crisis that forced him to take a $45 billion government bailout and unload some of his biggest units. The bank, once the nation's largest by assets, now ranks third after Bank of America Corp. and JPMorgan Chase & Co.
