Citigroup Takes Another Small Step
By Michael Baron 04/16/10 - 09:25 AM EDT
NEW YORK (TheStreet) -- Citigroup(C) has completed its sale of 16.4 million shares of Primerica(PRI) to private equity firm Warburg Pincus for $230 million.
The transaction, which was part of a previously announced agreement related to Primerica's initial public offering on April 1, also includes seven-year warrants for Warburg Pincus to purchase another 4.1 million Primerica common shares at an exercise price of $18 per share. In addition, Primerica said Michael Martin and Daniel Zilberman, two Warbug Pincus managing directors, will be joining its board.
Shares of Citigroup, which now owns less than 40% of Primerica's outstanding common stock, were off slightly in premarket action, dipping 7 cents to $4.74 in recent trades. The stock was up about 50% year-to-date through Thursday's close, and managed to cross the $5 level for the first time since mid-October yesterday, but it was unable to hold the gains and ultimately closed lower.
Seemingly always at the top of the New York Stock Exchange's volume leaders these days, another 30 million Citigroup shares have already traded ahead of the open. On Thursday, 1.5 billion shares changed hands.
The stakes keep rising for Citigroup as Bank of America(BAC) followed up a strong first quarter by JPMorgan Chase(JPM) on Wednesday with blowout numbers of its own this morning.
Citigroup is slated to report its own results before Monday's opening bell, so Friday's session will be the last chance for traders to position themselves ahead of the release. Wall Street's consensus estimate is for Citigroup to post breakeven results on a per share basis with revenue projected at $20.8 billion.
--Written by Michael Baron in New York.
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