ZT: Citigroup's profit isn't all that it seems Business Times - 21 Apr 2009 BREAKINGVIEWS.COM Citigroup's profit isn't all that it seems By ANTONY CURRIE CITIGROUP has finally made some money again. After five quarters of posting multibillion-dollar losses and requiring two capital injections and a partial government guarantee on some US$300 billion of assets, that's a welcome relief - not least to embattled chief Vikram Pandit. But the US$1.6 billion profit the troubled megabank posted for the first three months of the year is not as good as it looks. First, it's barely enough to cover US$1.3 billion in dividend payments to preferred stockholders, including the US Treasury. Of course, most will soon be swapping these securities into common stock - aside from the Abu Dhabi Investment Authority's preferreds, which start converting next year. That'll sharply reduce the dividend, but at the expense of diluting current shareholders by quadrupling the amount of common stock. But Citi struggled to make money (more...)