Citigroup Plans To Slash More Than $400B In Non-core Assets

New York, NY (AHN) - Citigroup Inc. indicated that the firm is planning to sell more than $400 billion of its non-core assets to cut costs and retain capital growth of the company.

The plans to wind down the 22 percent assets of the company will be done over the period of next two to three years as the beleaguered banking group tries to reinvigorate itself.

The announcement was made by the troubled firm's Chief Executive Officer Vikram Pandit during a presentation to investors and analysts at Citigroup's midtown Manhattan headquarters.

"We believe the right model is a global universal bank," Pandit was quoted saying by CNN Money. "This is the model that delivers the most shareholder value."

Citi has already registered around $40 billion in writedowns during the past three quarters amid subprime crisis that began last summer.

The company has raised the same amount in recent months, including $12 billion the past several weeks, according to The Wall Street Journal.

According to the market analysts, Pandit, who replaced Charles O. "Chuck" Prince in December 2007, has indicated that it has plans to slash down bank's total assets worth $2.2 trillion down by as much as $65 billion.

To placate the shareholders of the bank, Pandit has already disposed over 45 branches in eight states in the U.s., followed by group's head office in Tokyo.

"They need to pare back the parts that are broken," Barry James, who manages more than $2 billion as president of James Investment Research in Xenia, Ohio, including Citigroup bonds, told Bloomberg.

"He's a cautious guy. He's not going to do anything rash," James said.

Shares of the firm shed 5 cents to $24.25 during the morning trading on Friday in New York Stock Exchange composite trading.

The stocks of the company have already lost 54 percent of its original value on the New York Stock Exchange since the end of 2006.