• Home
  • About PCM
  • Investment Management
  • Accounting & Small Business
  • Blog
  • Contact
Menu

Peridot Capital Management LLC

Registered Investment Advisor
Bound to Fiduciary Standard
Serving clients nationwide

Your Custom Text Here

Peridot Capital Management LLC

  • Home
  • About PCM
  • Investment Management
  • Accounting & Small Business
  • Blog
  • Contact

Why Break Up Citigroup When You Can Just Change the Name?

January 16, 2007 Chad Brand, Peridot Capital Management LLC
citi.GIF

Investors hoping Citigroup (C) CEO Chuck Prince would break up the company into smaller parts in order to significantly boost shareholder value will have to wait a little while, at least. After calling such break up talk ridiculous and stupid, Prince reportedly has decided to revamp the Citigroup's brand by, hold your breath, shortening the company's name to Citi and having each division's arc on the logo be a different color. Such a move is an attempt to "unify the identity of Citigroup's businesses" according to the Associated Press. Isn't unifying the company's identity the exact opposite of breaking the company up? Will the move do anything for the company's lagging stock price (shares have risen a total of about 5% over the last 5 years)? Highly unlikely.

Without a break up, Citi sports a 6 to 7 percent earnings growth rate and a 12 P/E multiple. Such a ratio seems about right for that type of growth. By breaking up into smaller pieces, it would be much more obvious to investors that some of Citi's businesses are growing much faster than the entire firm as a whole. In that case, higher multiples would clearly be afforded to some divisions.

The result would be increased shareholder value, not to mention better growth prospects given that it is much easier to grow a bunch of separately run, individualized, smaller firms than it is an enormous one. Just giving each business their own colored arc really doesn't accomplish that feat quite as well.

Full Disclosure: No position

In financial services
← Caremark Investors Shouldn't Get Too Excited About Sweetened CVS BidMorningstar Analysts Seem Confused →

Peridot Capital Management LLC is a registered investment advisor in the states of Maryland, Pennsylvania, and Washington. The firm may not transact business in states where it is not registered or exempted from registration. In most states, the firm is exempt from registration if it has fewer than six clients who are residents of that state. As a result, Peridot Capital Management LLC is free to provide services to residents of every state and applies for registration as required. Individualized responses to persons that involve either the effecting of transactions in securities, or the rendering of personalized investment advice for compensation, will not be made without registration or exemption.

The content published on our blog represents the opinions of Mr. Brand and he and/or his clients may hold positions in securities discussed. Such positions will be disclosed at the time of publication, although subsequent changes to those positions will be made without notification. The information contained in blog posts is believed to be accurate when published, however, mistakes could be made. As a result, do not rely on the content exclusively for your investment due diligence. The commentaries published do not constitute investment advice, as readers’ personal investment goals and risk tolerances will dictate which investments are appropriate for them. Our blog is meant to be one of many sources for readers to conduct their own research into specific investments. Consult an investment professional before acting solely on information found on this site. If you do not have an investment professional to work with, you may contact Peridot Capital Management LLC directly.