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World Business

US Treasury to sell Citigroup stock

(Xinhua)
Updated: 2010-04-27 09:42

WASHINGTON: US Treasury Department announced Monday its plan to sell approximately 7.7 billion shares of Citigroup common stock.

The Treasury said that it will sell the stock "in an orderly fashion under a pre-arranged trading plan with Morgan Stanley, Treasury's sales agent."

Initially, Treasury will sell up to 1.5 billion shares, which accounts for 20 percent of total shares that the government owns in the bank giant.

Citigroup received a total of $45 billion in bailout money from the government during the height of financial crisis last summer.

Treasury received the shares as compensation for the massive support it extended to the bank. The Treasury owns 27 percent of the company in return for an investment of $25 billion.

The sales are expected to make a profit for the government which purchased the common stock in the summer of 2009 at a price of $3.25 per share. Citigroup shares price stood at $4.71 in morning trading on Monday.

As the US economy is rebounding, the government has been exiting gradually from its investment in the financial sector.