Reuters: Deals: Akbank says Citi's stake trim driven by Basel III

Reuters: Deals Reuters.com is your source for breaking news, business, financial and investing news, including personal finance and stocks. Reuters is the leading global provider of news, financial information and technology solutions to the world's media, financial institutions, businesses and individuals. // via fulltextrssfeed.com

Akbank says Citi's stake trim driven by Basel III Mar 24th 2012, 00:18 Tweet Share this Email Print Related News Morgan Stanley wants all of Citi venture: sources 7:37pm EDT SEC, Citigroup may win appeal in fraud case Thu, Mar 15 2012 Fed gives mostly high marks in bank stress tests Wed, Mar 14 2012 Citigroup could be surprise winner in stress tests Mon, Mar 12 2012 Analysis & Opinion Fed's Citi logic is hard to follow Bank capital and short-term greediness Related Topics Deals » Global Deals Review: 2011 Q3 » Global Deals Review: 2011 Q2 » Global Deals Review » Inflows Outflows » A woman walks into a Citibank branch in New York January 17, 2012. Credit: Reuters/Shannon Stapleton ISTANBUL | Fri Mar 23, 2012 8:18pm EDT ISTANBUL (Reuters) - Citigroup's (C.N) decision to reduce its stake in Akbank (AKBNK.IS) from 20 percent to 10 percent was part of a move to prepare for Basel III rules and technical reasons related to Citibank, the Turkish lender said in a statement late on Friday. "Citigroup made the decision to reduce its stake in our bank as a preparation for the Basel III rules. Citigroup's decision is only due to Basel III rules and based on technical reasons of concern to Citigroup," it said in a statement to the Istanbul Stock Exchange. "The changes that our bank's partnership structure will go through have no effect on our bank's financial strength or management and will cause no changes on the profitable growth strategies of our bank," Akbank said. The U.S. Federal Reserve announced in December that it would implement virtually all of the Basel III capital rules, a global accord on banking that discourages large holdings by banks in other financial institutions. Announcing plans to trim its stake, first purchased in January 2007, Citigroup said the current carrying value of equity method investment n Akban is $3,4 billion. Citigroup said it expects to record an impairment charge related to the total investment in Akbank amounting to about $1.1 billion pre-tax. It also said hedging costs and translation losses reflected in other comprehensive income would total approximately $1.0 billion. The impairment charge of $1.1 billion will be recorded in first quarter 2012, Citigroup said. (Writing by Simon Cameron-Moore) Global Deals Review: 2011 Q3 Global Deals Review: 2011 Q2 Related Quotes and News Company Price Related News Tweet this Link this Share this Digg this Email Reprints We welcome comments that advance the story through relevant opinion, anecdotes, links and data. If you see a comment that you believe is irrelevant or inappropriate, you can flag it to our editors by using the report abuse links. Views expressed in the comments do not represent those of Reuters. For more information on our comment policy, see http://blogs.reuters.com/fulldisclosure/2010/09/27/toward-a-more-thoughtful-conversation-on-stories/ Comments (0) Be the first to comment on reuters.com. Add yours using the box above.

You are receiving this email because you subscribed to this feed at blogtrottr.com. If you no longer wish to receive these emails, you can unsubscribe from this feed, or manage all your subscriptions