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Non-Tech : Banks--- Betting on the recovery -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Asymmetric who wrote (841)	4/21/2010 11:48:23 PM
From: Asymmetric	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 1428

At Shareholder Meeting, Citigroup CEO Pandit Touts Recovery . By Matthias Rieker / WSJ April 20, 2010 A year ago at Citigroup Inc.'s (C) annual shareholder meeting, the company was struggling to turn government aid into a solid capital base; now Citigroup says it wants to help the country out of a recession. Citigroup shareholders elected all the bank's proposed directors with more than 90% of the vote in favor. Also, shareholders passed a proposal extending to the board permission to implement a potential reverse stock split--a prospect that raised considerable concern among some shareholders at the annual meeting. At the bank's meeting in New York, Chief Executive Vikram Pandit reiterated that the bank's $4.4 billion first-quarter profit shows the company is "on the right track," and remains "one of the best capitalized banks in the world." "I feel a lot better than a year ago," he said. For those harboring doubts about Citigroup's condition, the bank provided tangible evidence of its healing: It served its shareholders coffee, something it didn't do last year. Still, one shareholder reminded Pandit that when Pandit became CEO, Citigroup's stock was trading at around $30 and paid a much larger dividend. The shareholder asked for Citigroup to reinstate its former full dividend, and called for Chairman Richard Parsons' resignation. "We want our dividend back," the shareholder said. Pandit said, "It's only prudent for us to wait" to increase the dividend until regulatory capital requirements are clear. In his opening remarks, Pandit said he "sincerely regrets" the dilution to shareholders from capital measures to stabilize the company. Citigroup's change in culture, including risk culture, will in the future be a guard against bad judgment. "We've had tremendous success in recruiting world-class talent," Pandit said, and the bank is "better positioned than any other institution" to benefit from a rising economy, including a rising middle class in developing countries. Pandit told a considerably smaller audience than last year that the "financial crisis illustrates the need for banks to focus on their basic function: helping customers." He declared three principals of responsible finance. "We will contribute to the economic recovery," promote customer choice and control over their financial destiny, and be an "advocate for change that is in the interest of our customers." Pandit reiterated Citigroup is "not involved" in the Securities and Exchange Commission's case against Goldman Sachs Group Inc. (GS), and said, "I don't know anything other than what I read in the newspapers." Citigroup's chairman, Parsons, also spoke at the meeting, telling shareholders, "The bank is on its way back." Shareholders at the meeting brought up the topic of a reverse stock split, which would be intended to result in fewer, higher-priced Citigroup shares; the stock was trading at $4.99, up 10 cents, in early afternoon trading. Some shareholders said they favored a reverse split, others opposed. Parsons responded that no decision has been made by the board about a reverse split.