WASHINGTON, Oct 19 (KUNA) -- The US Treasury Department on Tuesday announced it expects to make profit in its latest sale of 1.5 billion shares of Citigroup years after investing USD 45 billion in emergency bailout funds to stabilize the troubled financial firm.
The Treasury Department said in a statement it would begin its fourth trading plan under which investment bank Morgan Stanley "will have discretionary authority to sell 1.5 billion shares of Citigroup common stock under certain parameters".
At the height of the financial crisis, the Treasury poured a portion of funds from the Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP) into shoring up Citigroup's capital reserves in exchange for 7.7 billion in Citigroup shares, once the worlds largest bank.
To date, the Treasury said, taxpayers have recouped USD 41.6 billion back from Citigroup in dividends, interest, repayment and sales of common stock.
When the sale announced Tuesday is complete, the government's share of the bank would drop to about seven percent of total shares outstanding, down from a peak 27 percent.
In a corporate report released Monday, Citigroup said it earned USD 2.2 billion in net income in the third quarter, up from USD 101 million in the same quarter of 2009. Its revenue, however, dropped to roughly USD 21 billion from USD 23 billion a year ago. (end) hy.bs KUNA 191940 Oct 10NNNN