Thaindian News

By Arun Kumar
Washington, Jan 18 (IANS) Citigroup Inc led by Indian American chief executive Vikram Pandit reported $10.6 billion earnings in 2010, marking the first profitable year since he took charge of the banking giant in December 2007.The New York-based third-largest US bank reported its fourth straight quarterly profit, but its shares fell in pre-market trading as revenue fell far short of estimates.

With $1.31 billion earnings, less than analysts estimated, fourth-quarter net income was four cents a share, compared with a $7.58 billion loss, or 33 cents, in the same period in 2009.

Eight analysts had predicted in a Bloomberg survey that Citigroup would report a per-share profit of seven cents.

“I am very pleased that with our fourth consecutive profitable quarter, we earned $10.6 billion for the year,” said Pandit, 54, who nursed the ailing bank to health with a token annual salary of $1 after some $39 billion of losses over 2008 and 2009.

“Although the economic environment remains uncertain, our future path is clear: As America’s global bank, we’ve built a foundation capable of producing sustained profitability and our next goal is to achieve responsible growth,” he said.

The US Treasury, which gave the bank a taxpayer-funded $45 billion bailout in 2008, also sold the last of its stake in the fourth quarter. Citigroup stock rose 43 percent during the year.

Citigroup recorded $6.9 billion in credit losses for the quarter, which is down 11 percent from the third quarter and marks its sixth straight decline.

The bank released $2.3 billion of previous loan loss reserves into earnings. All told, its loan loss provision was $4.8 billion - about $600 million below the Barclays target, CNNMoney said.

(Arun Kumar can be contacted at arun.kumar@ians.in )