|
|
 |
 |
 |
|
 |
 |
A HORROR run for global financial institutions has deepened with the share price of the once-mighty United States giant Citigroup slumping under US$1.
This follows a fresh US$30 billion (S$46 billion) US government bailout for the world's former No. 1 insurer American International Group (AIG) earlier this week and the biggest loss in British business history at the Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) a week ago.
The past week or so is being seen as the worst spell for global banks since the collapse of US investment bank Lehman Brothers in September. Veteran investor Jim Rogers told The Straits Times: 'Many of the major American banks are technically bankrupt. 'The world's got very serious problems and things are not going to be better in the second half or in 2010.' 'It certainly seems like there's investor capitulation,' said Mr Elan Cohen, JP Morgan Private Bank's senior portfolio manager. 'In the US, the government is taking a larger stake in Citigroup, and many investors are just unclear what this will actually mean in practice for banks, and that has led to increased investor anxiety which has led them to continue selling bank shares.' At its 2006 peak, Citi's share price was US$55.70 as it strode the globe unchallenged as the No. 1 bank with a total market value of US$277.2 billion. It is now worth just US$5.6 billion even after repeated US government bailouts worth tens of billions of dollars. Citi's ranking in terms of market size has crashed from No. 1 to No. 184, below Singapore's three banks, for instance, and even minnows like Turkey's Akbank, Bloomberg News reported. Read the full story in the digital edition of the Straits Times.
|
|
| ||
|
|
|
|
||
|
|
|
|
 |
|
|
|