Citigroup and Merrill Lynch posts loss

Oct.16, 2008 in Market Outlook

Merrill Lynch reports $5.2 billion loss

By Sam Mamudi, MarketWatch

Last Update: 10/16/2008 8:53:00 AM

NEW YORK (MarketWatch) — Merrill Lynch, which agreed last month to be acquired
by Bank of America, on Thursday posted a wider third-quarter loss, hit by
write-downs and credit losses.

Merrill (MER) lost $5.15 billion, or $5.58 a share, in the quarter, compared to a
loss of $2.24 billion, or $2.82 a share a year ago.

Merrill’s net loss excluded payments of $3.34 billion of preferred stock
dividends in the latest quarter, compared to $73 million of preferred dividends
in the year-ago period.

Third quarter net revenues were $16 million, versus $380 million a year ago.

Analysts polled by FactSet Research had expected the firm to lose $4.95 billion
in the quarter.

NEW YORK (MarketWatch) — Citigroup Inc., the troubled banking giant, reported
its fourth straight quarterly loss on Thursday amid continuing write-downs for
soured investments.

The company said it lost $2.8 billion, or 60 cents a share during the third
quarter, compared with a profit of $2.2 billion, or 44 cents a share a year ago.
Revenue fell 23% to $16.7 billion.

Analysts polled by FactSet Research, on average, expected the company to lose 49
cents a share.

“While our third-quarter results reflect both a difficult environment as well as
continued write-downs on our legacy assets, we are making excellent progress on
the parts of our business we control, including expense reduction, headcount, and
balance sheet and capital management,” said Citigroup Chief Executive Vikram
Pandit in a press release.

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