Sunday, November 4, 2007

Saudi "Warren Buffet" With Citigroup losses

Here's some British press reaction to the Citigroup drama.
First, a couple from the Telegraph:

Shares in the Wall Street behemoth have fallen 32 per cent – and that means a collossal loss if you're the single biggest stakeholder. The Saudi prince is licking his wounds, writes Helen Power...
...
He is listed by Forbes as the world's 13th richest man with a personal fortune of £10bn. He is often described as the Saudi Warren Buffet, although not everybody is convinced by the parallels.

However, unlike most oil-rich Saudis he boasts – with some justification – that he earned at least a majority of his estimated £10bn fortune by his own hand....MORE

Citigroup's Prince failed to deliver

Citigroup's chief exec is finally on his way out, despite having cleaned up the bank's reputation. Helen Power reports

Chuck Prince will go down in history as the man who got rid of Citigroup's famous umbrella logo just when it was about to pour down....MORE

From the Sunday Times:

Savers pull £14bn from ailing Rock

As part of the process, Blackstone has lined up between eight and 12 major banks, thought to include Morgan Stanley and Deutsche Bank, to provide funding for buyers.

This is designed to prevent individual bidding groups from exclusively securing major banks as backers. Citi had been in talks to provide £15 billion in funding, but is now unlikely to be a lender.

Blackstone was called in to advise Northern Rock’s board two weeks ago alongside Merrill Lynch and Citi.>>>MORE