Friday, February 20, 2009

Less Than Worthless

Citigroup, the largest bank in the United States (as of May 30, 2008), is worthless. In fact it is less than worthless. If the bank were put out on the street corner with a sign reading "Free Bank, Please Take" no sane person would touch it.

Take a look at these numbers. The one shouting out at me is the Enterprise Value. EV is what it would cost to buy a company outright. Basically it is Market Cap + Debt - Cash. Citigroup's Enterprise Value is minus $39 billion. Citigroup has no value. It has a negative value. You would have to pay me $39 billion to take the mess that is Citigroup off your hands. For comparison, General Electric has an EV of $616 billion. Even General Motors has an EV over $30 billion.

When considering nationalizing banks keep this in mind. Citigroup is not worth a red cent. At $2 a share, its stock is grossly overpriced. In fact, with all of the money the Federal Government has given to Citigroup, we should already own it.

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