Getting out of the Citi

[SkyzykS]

I awoke today to find this amongst the news briefings-

US Treasury Prices 2.4 Bln Citi Shares At $4.35 Per Share
Monday 12/06/2010 10:17 PM ET - Dow Jones News
Related Companies
Symbol Last %Chg
C 4.45 0.00%
As of 4:00 PM ET 12/6/10

By Michael R. Crittenden
Of DOW JONES NEWSWIRES

Washington (Dow Jones)–The U.S. Treasury Department said late Monday evening it had sold its remaining stake in Citigroup Inc. (C), a symbolic end for one of the more controversial government rescues during the financial crisis.
The Treasury said in a release it had priced the sale of 2.4 billion shares of Citi common stock at $4.35 per share. The sale completed the department’s efforts to exit its stake of 7.7 billion shares of Citi common stock it received in return for billions in government aid provided to the bank to help it weather the financial crisis. Treasury said that it expects to receive $10.5 billion in proceed from the sale.
More importantly, the Treasury said it expects to make a sizable profit on the $45 billion in government aid provided to Citi. The department said the proceeds from Monday’s offering should allow it to realize a profit of $12 billion on the $45 billion investment in the firm, including repayments on trust-preferred securities, stock sales and interest and dividends paid by the firm.
" By selling all the remaining Citigroup shares today, we had an opportunity to lock in substantial profits for the taxpayer and avoid future risk," Tim Massad, acting secretary for financial stability, said in a statement.

So, what say the economists, market watchers, and shrewd observers of our governments maneuvers and stratagems?

[MattyG35]

I don’t know much about stocks, but $4.35 seems low, who bought all of them?

[Jewbacca]

I am NOT a lawyer for Citi, but I have been on the “other side” of transactions with Citi (e.g., buying loans or getting out of loans). My experience:

1. They are not lending money, although the pretend to. They get presented with standard, well-in-compliance, loans, and they find some goofy reason to not lend.

2. They have put performing loans into technical default, even though payments are being made and they have no real reason to fear repayment — forcing good loans out of Citi to other banks

3. When you pay off loans (and I’m talking millions here), you can’t get them to give releases of liens or other standard things. No one is around to answer the phone. It’s like the employees have quit or checked out.

My humble, outside, opinion is that the wheels are falling off and it’s going to implode far worse than if the idiots in Washington (Bush and Obama) had not let it sink in the first place.

[skaz05]

[quote]MattyG35 wrote:
I don’t know much about stocks, but $4.35 seems low, who bought all of them?
[/quote]

Excellent question. I doubt it was anyone with any brains.