Folks who have paid attention to Citibank in the markets are aware that all has not been well beneath the big red arch. Another sign of that, from the Wall Street Journal: (subscriber link)
Prince Alwaleed bin Talal is poised to once again come to the rescue of Citigroup Inc.
This time, the Saudi billionaire is expected to be joined by other investors, including the China Development Bank, people familiar with the matter said.
While it isn’t clear how much Prince Alwaleed will invest, the Chinese entity is expected to invest roughly $2 billion, one person said. Prince Alwaleed’s total stake in Citigroup is likely to remain below 5% in order to avoid regulatory scrutiny. However, given that Citi has a stock-market value of $140 billion, even a 1% stake would end up being a significant sum of money.
While Citigroup is still working out details of the planned investments, and there’s a chance they could fall apart, the bank is hoping to collect a total of $8 billion to $10 billion from a number of investors, likely including at least one fund affiliated with a foreign government, the people said.
I can’t wait until the conspiracy theorists and xenophobes get involved with spinning this news.
