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Friday, February 26, 2010

Citigroup plans to sell hedge fund business

Citigroup is in talks with SkyBridge Capital to sell its hedge fund business worth $4 billion.

An unnamed source told the Wall Street Journal that the investment banking group is thought to be in “advanced talks” with the organisation, which is run by two former traders from Goldman Sachs.

Assets in the fund include $2.5 billion which Citi advises on, $500 million in capital tied to hedge fund stakes and $1 billion worth of hedge fund investments.

Details of the deal, including how much SkyBridge would be willing to pay, have yet to be disclosed, the news provider reported.

Citigroup announced during 2009 that it would be looking to offload $715 billion worth of assets in a bid to reduce its exposure to risk and the bank is thought to still have more than $500 billion to shift.

According to the news provider, Citigroup has sold a number of assets including stakes in the Japan-based Nikko Cordial securities and Nikko asset-management businesses.

The sale of its Smith Barney brokerage business and consumer finance businesses in Portugal, Italy and Norway have also taken place as the bank attempts to recover in the wake of the global financial crisis.

Fund-of-fund investments in Citigroup increased in 2009 by more than 20 per cent, the news provider stated.

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