| Author | Message | ||
     Ashton Side Hero Username: Ashton Post Number: 5947 Registered: 05-2008 Posted From: 66.90.104.94 Rating: N/A |
http://www.foxbusiness.com/markets/2010/08/25/analyst-citigr oup-cooking-books/?cmpid=prn_baynote_fallback_Analyst:_Citig roup_Is_Cooking_the_Books An all-out war has broken out between Citigroup CEO Vikram Pandit and a prominent securities analyst who is saying that the big bank may be cooking the books by inflating its earnings through an accounting gimmick, FOX Business Network has learned. The analyst, Mike Mayo, of the securities firm CLSA, has been telling investors that Citigroup (C: 3.66 ,0.00 ,0.00%) should take a writedown, or a loss on some $50 billion of “deferred-tax assets,” or DTAs. That is a tax credit the firm has on its financial statement that Mayo says is inflating profits at the big bank by as much as $10 billion. For that critique, Mayo has been denied one-on-one meetings with top players of the firm, including CEO Vikram Pandit, Chief Financial Officer John Gerspach, and any other member of management, while other analysts enjoy full access to the bank’s top executives, FBN has learned. In fact, Mayo hasn’t had a meeting with Pandit or anyone in Citigroup management since around the time of the financial crisis, in the fall of 2008, when Citigroup was on the verge of extinction and needed an unprecedented series of government bailouts to survive. Since then Citigroup has been profitable, albeit marginally. Though it posted a loss for the full year of 2009, after it repaid a government bailout loan during the fourth quarter and began to unwind Uncle Sam’s ownership stake. One reason Citigroup may be unwilling to write off its DTAs: to do so may sink the troubled bank back into unprofitability. |
