Citigroup (C) Q1 Earnings, Revenue Drop

While first-quarter revenue for Citigroup (NYSE:C) fell as expected, results were better-than-expected.

The giant bank reported first quarter EPS of $0.10 a share, 1 cent better than the consensus of $0.09. Net income was $3.0 billion, compared to $1.3 billion in the fourth quarter of 2010 and $4.4 billion in the first quarter last year.

CEO Vikram Pandit said, "After a full year of profitability, we continue to make progress in 2011 by executing our strategy with discipline. Citi Holdings losses continued to decrease; we are investing in our core businesses in Citicorp; our capital strength improved; and the mix of revenues reflects the diversity of our businesses and our depth in both the emerging and developed markets."

Revenue plunged to $19.7 billion, a 22 percent decline, far below consensus of $20.55 billion. From last year the drop was 11 percent. The decline was most the result of negative CVA and lower revenues in Fixed Income Markets and North America Regional Consumer Banking.

For the seventh consecutive quarter Citigroup experienced net credit losses, which fell to $6.3 billion. For the year net credit losses are down 25 percent so far.

Citigroup was trading at $4.47, gaining $0.04, or 1.02 percent.

Citigroup (C) in 1-for-10 Reverse Stock Split Before Dividend Reinstatement

Preparing to reinstate its quarterly dividend, Citigroup (NYSE:C) said in the second quarter they'll offer a penny a share after the completion of a 1-for-10 reverse stock split.

Monday's announcement comes three days after the U.S. Federal Reserve cleared the way for major lenders to increase their dividends. Banks had been forced to cut their dividends to preserve cash after the financial crisis that peaked in September 2008. That was a condition of the government's massive bank bailout package.

The Fed's move last week was seen as a sign of the industry's return to health, and some banks quickly announced plans to raise their dividends and buy back shares.

"Citi is a fundamentally different company than it was three years ago," CEO Vikram Pandit said in a statement. "The reverse stock split and intention to reinstate a dividend are important steps as we anticipate returning capital to shareholders starting next year."

Citigroup was trading at $4.465, down $0.035 or 0.78 percent, as of 11:30 AM EDT.






Source

Citigroup (C) to Boost Dividend in 2012 says Pandit

With a number of its peers close to reinstating or boosting their dividends, Citigroup (NYSE:C) is attempting to keep shareholders at home by reminding them the bank will be returning capital to shareholders in 2012.

Dividends are a big part of shareholder interest in the giant banks, and with Citigroup probably being last in line to be given the okay by regulators to increase its dividend, they'll be a a significant competitive advantage for about a year or slightly more.

Bank of America (NYSE:BAC) recently stated they have plans to pay shareholders a dividend sometime in the middle of 2011. Other banks have made similar assertions, although they could be in shape to do it much quicker than Bank of America and Citigroup.

Speaking at the bank's financial services conference, CEO Vikram Pandit gave no details as to a time-frame he's thinking of.

Citigroup was trading at $4.63, down $0.005, or 0.22 percent, as of 1:17 PM EST.

Citigroup's (C) Pandit Faces Tough Crowd in India

It was a tough crowd, but Vikram Pandit, chief executive of Citigroup Inc. (NYSE:C), managed to win over the room full of finance majors gathered to meet him in town hall gathering in the first-floor ballroom of the Indian capital city's regal Imperial Hotel.

So Pandit, despite trying not to, was forced to be the professional banker that he is, and offer up statements similar to what he might exchange with his peers on Wall Street.

Since taking over as chief executive in December 2007, Pandit is on his first official visit to his country of birth. His first stop was in Mumbai, where Citigroup hosted a cocktail reception in the glittering ballroom of the Taj Mahal Palace so he could meet some of his largest revenue generators, the firm's clients. He has been in Delhi for two days attending the spring meeting of the International Institute of Finance.

Now that Citigroup is no longer on the verge of collapse, or owned by the U.S. government, or still running huge losses—last year it netted globally $10.6 billion on revenues of $86.6 billion—the man at the helm finally has time to breathe, and to check in on business in other parts of world to gauge the growth opportunities.

Citigroup was trading at $4.64, up $0.05, or 0.98 percent, as of 2:13 PM EST.




Full Story

Citigroup's (C) Pandit Giving Accurate Valuations?

On February 14, 2008, John Lyons, the examiner in charge of large bank supervision at the OCC, sent Citigroup (NYSE:C) and its auditors a scorcher of a valentine. In a nutshell, it said that Citigroup had no idea what it owned and had no idea how to value it. “Risk management had insufficient authority,” it said, the board “had no effective oversight role,” and “matters requiring attention” ranged from corporate governance and risk management in general and CDO valuation in particular.

Eight days later, on February 22, Citi unveiled its annual report to shareholders. In that report, Vikram Pandit personally attested that Citi had full control over its finances and that its valuations were reliable; the auditor, KPMG, said exactly the same thing.

The FCIC should have asked questions about this — after all, the OCC letter comes from its own archives. But it doesn’t seem to have done so, which means that it has fallen to Jonathan Weil to do the digging and to construct a timeline and to ask awkward questions. The problem is that Weil, as excellent as he is, doesn’t have nearly the power that the FCIC had. So he can get stonewalled easily:

"Pandit, Crittenden and O’Mara didn’t return phone calls. A KPMG spokesman, George Ledwith, declined to comment, as did an OCC spokesman, Kevin Mukri. A Citigroup spokeswoman, Shannon Bell, declined to discuss the OCC’s findings."





Full Story

Citigroup's (NYSE:C) Bonus Pay an End-Run Around Public Opinion?

Citigroup (C) this month instituted a handy new compensation plan that will enrich CEO Vikram Pandit's top four lieutenants. Under the so-called Key Employee Profit Sharing Plan, Citi execs can earn between $1.7 million and $5.2 million -- assuming the bank and its top leaders can hit performance and conduct targets that are roughly as big as the side of a barn.

Citi said in a Securities and Exchange Commission filing last week that the plan is "intended to preserve and incent the company's management team," via a revenue-sharing plan. This sounds like a fine idea, linking pay to performance for the sake of aligning management's interests with those of shareholders and that sort of thing.

But in the proud tradition of rivals like Goldman Sachs (GS), what Citi is actually doing here is moving the goalposts in so that executives can collect on their incentive pay even if they boot things rather badly in the next couple years. Not that that ever happens at Citi.

Citi operating chief John Havens, finance chief John Gerspach, consumer banking head Manuel Medina-Mora and top overseas exec Alberto Verme can get their payouts if Citi makes $12 billion in pretax income over the next two years.





Rest of Story

Citigroup (NYSE:C) Awards Executives with Options on 18 Million Shares

In a filing with the SEC, Citigroup (NYSE:C) revealed it has awarded 15 senior executives with stock options on 18.2 million company shares. That is part of their bonuses for 2010 performances.

The most options were offered to Chief Operating Officer John Havens, and the head of consumer banking for the Americas, Manuel Medina-Mora, both receiving 2 million share each.

Next in line were Chief Financial Officer John Gerspach and head of Citi Holdings, Michael Corbat, who both received 1.5 million shares.

Chief Executive Officer Vikram Pandit refused to take a bonus for 2010.

Citigroup spokeswoman Anu Ahluwalia said, “These option awards, which are meant to incent and retain our management team, further align Citi’s compensation with the long-term performance of the company.”

Those awarded with options have a choice on whether or not to acquire shares at a specific price in a specific period of time.

If the share price of the company rises within those parameters, option holders can cash in the difference.

According to the filings, the options vest in three equal annual installments starting on February 14, 2012 and can be exercised at $4.91 a share. The options expire in February 2017.

Citigroup closed Wednesday at $4.90, dropping $0.01, or 0.20 percent.

Citigroup (NYSE:C) Looking Forward to Successful Future Says CEO Pandit

In a recent interview on the Fox Business Network, Citigroup (NYSE:C) CEO Vikram Pandit said the company has definitely turned around, and is looking forward to the future.

Pandit said, "...we made over $10 Billion last year. We repaid the government, the government made a good return on its investment. We’ve been selling down our Citi holdings portfolio very fast and we're now completely focused on our core operating businesses of the future."

The CEO was asked if Citigroup could be a $10 stock again. He responded, "we'll let the shareholders decided that, but I'll tell you again we're doing all the right things in executing our core strategy, bringing American companies to the emerging markets, intermediating emerging market flows and so we’re looking forward to the future."

Citigroup closed Tuesday at $4.91, level with Monday's close.

Citigroup (NYSE:C) in Big Miss, Shares Plummet

Citigroup Inc. (NYSE:C) didn't have good news for shareholders as the giant bank missed analysts' estimation by half, generating 4 cents a share rather than the 8 cents a share the Street was looking for. Shares were down over 5.5 percent in response to the miss.

Vikram Pandit, Chief Executive Officer of Citigroup, attempted to salvage the disappointing quarter, saying, “2010 was a year full of milestones and was critical for the turnaround of this institution. Our goal was to achieve consistent profitability and I am very pleased that with our fourth consecutive profitable quarter, we earned $10.6 billion for the year. We have the right strategy for our company’s present and future and are executing it with discipline."

Citigroup also missed revenue estimates, generating $18.37 billion, down from the $20.45 billion the Street projected. It was still a major improvement over last year's results by $5.4 billion.

Citigroup was trading at $4.86, losing 0.28, or 5.36 percent, as of 11:18 AM EST.

Citigroup (NYSE:C) CEO Pandit Admits Shareholders Must Wait

Citigroup (NYSE:C) CEO Vikram Pandit admitted today that shareholders in the company will probably have to wait at least another year before they see dividend increases or purchasing shares by the company.

Pandit said it probably won't be until 2012 before those actions are taken.

"We've been very clear we think 2012 is the year to look forward to. It's important...that we meet all the Basel (capital requirements) and we meet them in full force, and use that as a platform to start returning capital to our shareholders," said Pandit to CNBC.

"While we think the markets are increasingly recognizing who we are, we've got some ways to go," he added.

Global economic conditions will determine the time-frame, as Pandit noted, "The housing market usually takes a little bit longer and that is not only today's phenomena, that's been true whenever there have been housing cycles. The key, key indicator for us is to watch how businesses do, how they grow, how they invest, and that is going to create jobs."

Citigroup was trading at $4.6150, up $0.0250, or 0.54 percent, as of 1:29 PM EST.