Tickle A Vickle in the house.
Apparently the reaction inside Citiville to the whole gov thing has been “Overwhelmingly positive!”
“We’re committed to rebuilding as much value as we can, as quickly as we can.”
Vik hands the mic to some guy named Gary.
“This move will allow us to rebuild shareholder value.”
“We’ve cut a lot of costs…we’ve cut our headcount by 52,000 people…we’ve reduced assets from $413 billion.”
“We’re making excellent progress on the Citi Corp. split.”
“January was good…The quarter’s far from over though, and things could get ugly
“Does the announcement today mean we don’t have to raise more capital? That was the goal. But things beyond our control could happen that could mess with that.”
“The potential outcome of the transaction could vary substantially.”
Questions
Mike Mayo: Why would a common shareholder want to increase their ownership with the gov getting involved?
Vikram: This is an exchange offer and a conversion…NOT additional capital from the government. We’re doing the day to day not the gov…The thing everyone has to focus on is that the goal is to enhance the franchise value….Net net net we’re gonna run Citi for the shareholders.
Betsy Graseck: The gov investment in the form of common, will that affect Banamex?
Vikram: No. We’ve structured these investments so that all our franchises in Citicorp remain intact.
I miss Jeff Harte’s question. Something about how the deal will affect the franchises (Vikula says it won’t).
No further questions. Apparently if you think of one later you’re to call investor relations, says Gary.
…and we have Citi Field.
this is actually a pretty smart move.
conversion across various pref securities well designed. look for boa to follow
I waiuld take a three leeged dog over this perfumed and lipsticked pig….
Oh would you just stop covering this company and just bend over and assume the worst!
Yesterday’s comment about good ole Vic was too strong for the mods, but today I will temper myself.
Please, please, please Vik. Take your whole kit and kaboodle and fuck off back to Mumbai.
Nothing left to mismanage. Move on.
art cashin may as well wear the tanning goggles on camera.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z5DuDr2r7gY
Is there anyone who works at Citi who can tell us what the real sentiment is within the firm?
i am retail banker at Citi, I will report sentiment as soon as the drive through open.
@8
Ken Lewis is sending over spirit points in a show of solidarity. So all is well. Not to worry.
What is the point of this swap? Is it supposed to show that the Gov’t won’t nationalize Citi or something? Is it supposed to save capital due to lower dividends? Struggling to understand the motive…
I have a close family member @Smith barney. morale could not be lower, with so many brokers heading for the doors and the rest witnessing their C shares decimated.
@8, @5 here. I am a C employee overseas. Survived countless RIFs. I feel liberated! No amount of effort on my part can fill even the smallest part of the hole that C has dug for itself. And nothing I can do could possibly make the hole larger.
It’s like, “Whoa… I don’t need to try like my life depends on it any longer.”
Vikram: This is an exchange offer and a conversion…NOT additional capital from the government.
Ah, think about that again because though technically correct, there’s a net loss on the gov’s initial “investment.” Or did I just lose my genius status by not reading the fine print?
@8 well you have a whole bunch of legacy Citibank lifers from retail and zombie back office folks who show up everyday chugging through their acronym-laden policies thinking all is grand. Actually they are the perfect candidates for this G1, G2…G12 government society that Citi is morphing into.
Then you have the rest of the firm – or, better put, what’s left of the rest of us. We wait for our layoff packages knowing that there is a chance that the day of a multi-year payout has passed us by. More like a handshake and 2 weeks for every year of service, if fortunate. It seems like a lifetime ago that we were licking our chops to get RIF’d so we could have our restricted shares/options vested and paid out.
No one respects Vikram, Critterton, Havens, Parsons, Ajay Banga, Stuckey, Corbat (sorry about the spellings) etc. In fact, all of these guys would be called *fucking asshole* if they showed up at a desk. There is no morale, how could there be? Many senior folks are unclear who their manager is – let alone what is the business mandate. Everyone knows Vikram, like Prince, is completely out of his depth and he is despised (maybe even out of envy for those who dreamed of such an opportunity) for pulling the wool over Chuck’s eyes for Old Lane and then bringing in a bunch of his loser buddies from Morgan Stanley. But the Street is fucked right now (does not matter if you are in NY, London or Asia) and we acknowledge that Citi is the Grand Marshal in this Wall Street parade of buffoons.
Well they should get $2 billion cash for Primerica whenever someone finally pulls the trigger. A. Williams wants a piece.
@9…hilarious.