Citigroup Q4 prediction; profits anticipated

New York, Jan 18: This piece of news will give Citigroup CEO Vikram Pandit a sigh of relief. The US-based Citigroup Inc, global banking giant is heading the right path of recovery after its fourth consecutive quarterly profit will be announced on Tuesday, Jan 18.

The bank was slowly getting on its feet after the recession meltdown sent shock waves across America. The US $45 billion bailout came as a breather for the bank. Analysts predict the bank to post a profit of 8 cents per share for the fourth quarter of 2010.

The Citigroup shares closed at $5.13 on Friday, Jan 14 that marked the highest point since August 2009. The bank's shares have saw an uphill surge of 55 percent since the beginning of 2010. The effect also due to the U.S. Government's sale of its stake in the bank. The US Treasury had recently disposed off its common share stake in Citigroup in December 2010. Sources in the treasury also revealed that they would forgo the remaining warrants by auction.

Citigroup's profit will however not match that of rival JPMorgan Chase & Co, when it posted profits that broke all expectations and gave investors enough and more reasons to rejoice. JPMorgan "set the bar very high," said Michael Holland, who oversees $4 billion of assets as chairman of Holland & Co.

"I think Citi is probably going to do very well but ... (Chief Executive) Vikram Pandit has a tall order to fill here when it comes to doing the same thing," he added.

Citigroup faced huge uncertainties after losses from bad loans, weak loan demand and a slump in trading volumes all through the recession period.

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