New York - US
financial conglomerate Citigroup Inc has agreed to sells its
real estate division, City Property Investors, to the US-based
private equity investor Apollo Management LP, according to reports Wednesday. Apollo stands to acquire 65 real estate investments in 26 countries with a net asset value of 3.5 billion dollars through the deal, roughly tripling the value of its property portfolio, the financial news agency Bloomberg reported, citing unnamed insiders.
The US Treasury Department owns over a quarter of Citigroup after injecting 45 billion dollars of bail-out cash - 20 billion of which the bank has since paid back - and regulators have been putting pressure on the firm to balance its books by selling off assets.
In a further bid to raise capital, Citigroup plans to sell 2 billion dollars worth of trust preferred securities or "TruPS," the news wire reported.
