Citigroup Gropes & JP Morgan Chase Cash

Citigroup groping... Citigroup is selling loans and securities to raise capital and has slashed more than 6,000 jobs.

GE agreed to buy most of Citigroup's North American commercial lending and leasing unit,

adding $13.4 billion in finance assets less than a week after an unexpected Q1 profit decline.

The CitiCapital lines that GE is buying help companies finance equipment in businesses including health care, material handling and construction.

JPMorgan Chasing... JP Morgan Chase, #3 US bank, raised $6 billion of hybrid bonds

in the bank's biggest sale of the securities, replenishing capital after a 50% drop in Q1 profit.

JPMorgan is paying annual interest of 7.9%, or 4.19 percentage points more than U.S. Treasuries, for 10 years on the perpetual preferred shares it sold yesterday,

The securities have no fixed maturity. If the bank decides not to call the debt after 10 years,

the interest payments will switch to a floating rate at 347 basis points more than the three-month LIBOR which is currently 2.82%.

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