Citigroup Writedowns May Top $13.7 Billion

Bloomberg:

Citigroup Inc., the world's biggest bank, may have losses from asset-backed bonds of as much as $13.7 billion, roughly equal to the company's profit so far this year. The shares fell for a sixth straight day.

The bank may have to write down an additional $2.7 billion of subprime mortgage-backed and related securities, CreditSights Inc. said today. Citigroup said on Nov. 4 that securities it holds may have lost $11 billion of value, prompting rating companies to downgrade its credit and precipitating the ouster of Chief Executive Officer Charles O. ``Chuck'' Prince III.

Additional writedowns may balloon to $21.1 billion if off- balance-sheet units are included, according to analysts David Hendler, Richard Hoffman and Pri de Silva in New York. That compares with potential losses of $5.4 billion for Bank of America Corp. in Charlotte, North Carolina, the second-biggest U.S. bank, and $4.1 billion for New York-based JPMorgan Chase & Co., the third-biggest, CreditSights said.

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