Chuck Prince resigned on Sunday as chairman and chief executive of Citigroup Inc, as the bank said it may write off $11 billion of subprime mortgage losses, on top of a $6.5 billion write-down last quarter. Robert Rubin, the former U.S. Treasury Secretary who had chaired Citigroup’s executive committee, was named chairman, while Sir Win Bischoff, who runs Citigroup’s European operations, was named acting chief executive.
A Qatari fund has ditched plans for a 10.6 billion-pound ($22 billion) bid for British retailer J Sainsbury, blaming worsening credit markets and the cost of winning support from the firm’s pension trustees. Shares in Sainsbury, Britain’s third-biggest supermarket group, tumbled as much as 20 percent in early Monday trading. It comes after confectioner Cadbury dropped plans to sell its North American drinks unit and pubs group Mitchells & Butlers put a planned property spin-off on ice.
Canada’s CIBC said on Sunday it would sell a major part of its U.S. capital markets business to Oppenheimer Holdings Inc. as it focuses on its core operations. The businesses to be acquired by Oppenheimer employ over 700 people and had annualized revenues of about $400 million, Oppenheimer said.
Real-estate financier Gramercy Capital Corp. agreed to buy American Financial Realty Trust, a real-estate investment trust that specializes in properties leased by financial institutions, for about $1.1 billion in cash and stock.
Kraft Foods Inc. is close to a deal to sell its Post cereals business to Ralcorp Holdings Inc. for about $2.8 billion, according to the Wall Street Journal. A sale would be part of Kraft’s push to get rid of slow-growth assets under Chief Executive Irene Rosenfeld. The Post cereals business, which includes Raisin Bran, Grape-Nuts and a variety of Pebbles children’s cereals, is the No. 3 U.S. cereal maker by sales after Kellogg Co. and General Mills Inc.
When former Merrill Lynch CEO Stan O’Neal held alleged discussions with Wachovia about a deal, was he going behind the board’s back, or just doing his job? The New York Time’s Dealbook argues that he was just doing his job, and pinning his departure partially on the Wachovia discussions is just a convenient excuse.
(Photo. Former Citigroup CEO Chuck Prince, Reuters file)
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Last October when Citigroup’s financial difficulties began to emerge, many news groups, including NewsVisual http://www.newsvisual.com/newsvisual/200 7/10/management-expe.html , wrote articles that voiced cautious optimism concerning the company’s ability to turn the corner and avert major losses. They based their prediction on the company’s collective management experience. Where those sanguine predictions unreasonable at the time?
- Posted by Jane Goodie