Kuwait Investment Authority, or KIA, sold its stake in Citigroup Inc. (C), which the sovereign-wealth fund bought in January last year, for $4.1 billion, reports said Sunday. KIA bought preferred securities of Citigroup last year for $3 billion to help the bank raise capital and sold them now as common shares, booking a profit of $1.1 billion in the process.
The KIA is an autonomous government body responsible for the management and administration of the General Reserve Fund, and the assets of the Future Generations Fund, as well as any other funds entrusted to it by the Minister of Finance for and on behalf of the State of Kuwait. KIA reportedly managed assets worth about 49 billion dinars at December 31, 2008.
When the U.S. financial system came under the whip of the crisis, sovereign wealth funds of the oil-rich Arab nations made use of the opportunity and invested heavily in it. KIA had made investments totaling about $5 billion in Citi and Merrill Lynch, which was later bought by Bank of America (BAC). At that time, the fund had come under criticism from home for these investments. KIA now made a 37% annualized return on its $3 billion investment in Citi.
However, KIA's stake sale came as a surprise. Just about two months ago, the fund had reportedly said that it had no immediate plans to sell its investments in Citigroup or Bank of America as its financial strategy was based on a long-term vision. The number of shares KIA sold or what it plans to do with the proceeds from the sale were not revealed.
Qatar Holding LLC said in October that it intends to sell 379.22 million ordinary shares in UK bank Barclays PLC (BCS,BARC.L). In October 2008, Barclays had raised about GBP 7 billion chiefly from Qatari and Abu Dhabi funds, in an effort to avoid capital injection from the U.K. Government. In June, Abu Dhabi government-owned International Petroleum Investment Co. sold about 1.3 billion Barclays shares. Last month, Qatar sold about half of its preference shares in Volkswagen.
Meanwhile, reports said Citi is trying to persuade the U.S. government to allow it to repay $20 billion in TARP funds. Citigroup needs to start a capital-raising effort before the middle of next week, or wait until late January after reporting quarterly results, the reports added. The government owns a 34% stake in the bank. Although the government is willing to sell some of its shares along with Citi's capital-raising effort, the authorities are concerned about Citi's health.
C closed Friday's regular trade at $4.06, up $0.01 or 0.25%, on 319.40 million shares.
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June 05, 2026 16:18 ET A busy week for economic news flow saw a slew of reports being released that reflected the trends in the U.S. labor market. In Europe, economic growth and inflation data gained attention as the European Central Bank and Bank of England head for policy session later in the month. In Asia, the monetary policy session of the Indian central bank was in focus as the country, a major oil importer, reels under the pressures of a weaker rupee and rising inflation.