Citi in talks with Russian firms on sale of local units

Bloomberg

Citigroup Inc is discussing the potential sale of its operations in Russia with privately owned Russian companies including Expobank and the insurer Reso-Garantia, the Financial Times reported.
The Wall Street bank is negotiating over its consumer and commercial businesses, the newspaper reported, citing people familiar with the matter. Rosbank, Societe Generale SA’s former Russian subsidiary, has also expressed interest, the FT said.
A spokeswoman for the bank declined to comment.
Citigroup’s Chief Executive Officer Jane Fraser told Bloomberg News in May that the firm was in “active dialog” with potential buyers of its consumer and commercial banking operations in Russia. Investors had grown increasingly concerned that the invasion of Ukraine — and the financial sanctions thrust upon many of Russia’s largest banks — could thwart efforts to exit operations in the country, a push the Wall Street lender first announced last year.
Investors had grown increasingly concerned that Russian President Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine — and the ensuing financial sanctions thrust upon many of Russia’s largest banks — would thwart Citigroup’s efforts to exit its operations in the country, a push the New York-based lender first announced last year. On Monday, Fraser said Citigroup still intends to sell those divisions, even as it continues to serve corporate clients in the region.
Citigroup last year announced it would seek to exit retail banking operations in 13 markets across Europe and Asia, and later said it would also seek to dispose of those operations in Mexico. Now, the bank has just four remaining markets in which it’s seeking buyers: Russia, Poland, China and Mexico.
Fraser said her firm is unable to pull out of Russia completely because it’s still helping many of the world’s largest corporations wind down the operations in the country.