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...financial system, the U.S. government unveiled plans on Monday to rescue one of the world's biggest banks, plowing $20 billion of new capital into Citigroup and shouldering up to tens of billions of dollars in losses tied to the bank's soured assets. After a brutal week for Citi - marked by pink slips for tens of thousands of workers and a 60% drop in its stock price - news that the government would step in propelled its shares, which rose 58% from Friday's close. "Equity investors were panicked about the company's viability," says David Trone, who follows Citi...
...What is Citi getting? Specifically, the government will back a $306 billion pool of troubled loans and securities largely related to the foundering residential and commercial real estate markets. After Citi absorbs the first $29 billion in losses on these securities, the government - first the Treasury Department and then the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) - will step in and bear 90% of any further losses. In return, the government gets up to $7 billion in preferred Citi stock and the right to buy more shares at $10.61 - not a bargain these days, with Citi trading in the single digits...
...Next, the government could suspend trading in the credit default swaps on Citigroup's debt. The price of those contracts, which pay out if Citi goes bankrupt, have been rising recently, and that is spooking the stock investors. Without that constant reminder of the increasing chance of Citi going out of business, some observers say the stock would rise...
...Citi has already asked the government to restrict short-selling (where investors borrow stock in hopes that the price will fall) in its shares. Executives hope that getting rid of the people rooting for the firm's demise could relieve some pressure on the company's shares. What's more, to close their positions, short sellers would have to buy the shares they borrowed...
...Again, the stock would probably rally. But the question is, for how long? And none of these moves address the problem that is really holding down Citi's shares. The bank has bad loans, and no one, probably not even the executives at Citi, know just how bad they...