heftig kritisiert. Die kürzung und der Verkauf von Tafelsiber wird als Indiz dafür gesehen, dass in den nächsten Quartalen weitere Abschreibungen notwendig werden könnten!
hier der Artikel:
Citigroup dividend cut faces criticism
Move suggests giant lender may be preparing for more losses, analysts say
By Alistair Barr, MarketWatch
Last update: 5:34 p.m. EST Jan. 15, 2008
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SAN FRANCISCO (MarketWatch) -- Citigroup Inc.'s decision to slash its dividend, while also selling assets and raising new capital, was criticized on Tuesday. The moves suggest the giant lender could be steeling itself for more losses in future, analysts said.
Citi, the nation's largest bank by assets, cut its dividend by 41% after reporting a $8.83 billion quarterly loss from more than $18 billion in write-downs on mortgage-related securities such as collateralized debt obligations (CDOs). See full story.
The dividend cut was one of several moves designed to bolster Citi's waning capital. The company plans to raise $12.5 billion selling preferred securities and also sold some businesses, cutting the value of its balance sheet by $176 billion, or 7.4%.
The steps will leave Citi's tier 1 capital ratio -- an important measure of the capital cushion banks need to maintain -- at roughly 8.2%, well over its target of 7.5%, analysts estimated. Before Tuesday's moves, analysts and investors were worried about Citi's capital levels falling too far and were expecting it to take action.
However, some analysts said Citi went too far, leaving it with an excess capital position. That sparked concern that the bank could be preparing for more losses in future.
"A lot of people were expecting a dividend cut, but I don't think they were expecting the combination of a dividend cut, asset sales and the size of the capital raise," Jeff Harte, an analyst at Sandler O'Neill, said in an interview.
"They're pulling on all the levers. The question is why?" Harte said. "There could be more bad news to come."
Citi shares fell 7.3% to close at $26.94 on Tuesday, leading major bank stocks lower. The stock has lost roughly half its value in the past year.
Where's the shareholder?
Dick Bove, an analyst at Punk Ziegel, criticized Citi during a conference call on Tuesday. The bank didn't need to cut its dividend because asset sales and new capital infusions would have bolstered capital enough, he said.
"Given the fact that the company is going to wind up with perhaps some excess capital, I find it difficult to understand why you would cut the dividend," Bove said, according to a transcript of the call.
"By cutting the dividend, you have knocked at least today $5 billion off the value of the stock. I'm wondering, where the shareholder shows up in this whole calculation?" he added. "From what I think I heard you say, there is no prospect of the dividend going back up again. There is going to be share repurchases as opposed to replacing the dividend. So how does the stockholder benefit by this?"
Citi Chief Financial Officer Gary Crittenden said the bank cut the dividend, sold assets and raised new capital to make sure that its capital cushion is big enough to tackle any possible future problems.
"One of the things that I have to, as part of my job, think about all the time, is what's the implications of the company of having a shock scenario happen," he said, according to a transcript.
"We have just experienced one of those," he added. "And that kind of an event could happen at some point down the road."
Indeed, some analysts worry that further shocks are not far off.
Citigroup still has almost $30 billion of net exposure to certain types of CDOs and $8 billion of gross lending and structuring exposures, despite taking $18.1 billion in fourth-quarter write-downs, George Lazarevski, a corporate debt analyst at BMO Capital Markets, said in a note to investors on Tuesday.
"These large exposures lead us to believe that Citigroup could take further write-downs in future periods," he said. End of Story -----------
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