Citigroup Inc, under pressure to bolster capital depleted by mounting losses, sold another 4.5 billion dollars in stock, the company said Wednesday, the dpa reported.
The move aims to help bolster its capital as it fights to stay above the worst US finance crisis in decades. The amount was 50 per cent more than it had planned and represents about 3 per cent of the bank's shares outstanding as of March 31, Bloomberg financial news service reported.
The bank has already raised more than 37 billion dollars during the past five months, more than any other financial services company.
The world's biggest banks are grappling with more than 300 billion dollars in losses on mortgages worldwide, after the drain of billions of dollars in mortgage defaults that were sold to US subprime lenders over the past decade.
The crisis is blamed for an economic downturn that barely escaped slipping into the negative figures on Wednesday, when the US government reported economic growth of 0.6 per cent in the first quarter of 2008.
Citigroup's previous capital-raising efforts included the sale of equity to investment funds controlled by foreign governments in Abu Dhabi, Singapore and Kuwait.
Last week, Citigroup announced plans to cut 9,000 jobs in the wake of a first-quarter net loss of 5.11 billion dollars. The 9,000 job cuts come atop the 4,200 job reductions which Citigroup announced in January.
The first-quarter red ink compares with a profit of just over 5 billion dollars in the same 2007 period and was somewhat higher than analysts' projections.