Citigroup Inc., the U.S. bank that’s liquidating assets after its $45 billion bailout, may sell about $570 million of investments with buyout firm CVC Capital Partners Ltd., people with direct knowledge of the matter said.
For sale are about $250 million of interests in two Asia funds managed by London-based CVC and 15 million euros ($21 million) in a European fund, said one person who requested anonymity because the sale process is private. Citigroup also is selling about 210 million euros of stakes in more than a dozen European companies that were accumulated as part of the bank’s role as co-investor on CVC-led deals, another person said.
The CVC stakes are among the $421 billion of assets in New York-based Citigroup’s Citi Holdings division, created in 2009 to dispose of businesses under a plan by Chief Executive Officer Vikram Pandit, 53, to streamline the lender. Citigroup, the third-biggest U.S. bank by assets, is 12 percent owned by the government. The value of the CVC stakes is based on estimates of their current worth, the people said.
Last week, Citigroup turned over management of $4 billion of buyout interests to StepStone Group LLC, and sold its investments in the funds to Lexington Partners Inc. That sale, which reduced the size of Citigroup’s balance sheet by $1.1 billion, left about $2 billion of buyout interests in Citi Holdings, including the CVC stakes.
Shannon Bell, a Citigroup spokeswoman, said she couldn’t comment. James Olley, a spokesman for CVC, said the firm doesn’t comment on individual investors.
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