Saudi billionaire Prince Alwaleed bin Talal said on Saturday he supports Citigroup's reverse stock split and reinstatement of its cash dividend.

Citigroup has demonstrated its ability to overcome the recent economic obstacles. I commend Citigroup's performance, Alwaleed, a prominent investor in Citigroup, said in a statement.

The nephew of Saudi Arabia's King Abdullah, Alwaleed is also chairman of Kingdom Holding <4280.SE>.

Citigroup, the most actively traded stock in the United States, will resume paying a normal dividend after it uses a reverse stock split to shrink the number of shares outstanding, it said in March.

The bank will pay a quarterly dividend of a penny a share, its first payout since 2009.

It said it will reduce the number of common shares outstanding to 2.9 billion from 29 billion through a 1-for-10 stock split.

In March Alwaleed said he expected Citigroup to post a profit in the first quarter.

Citigroup's chairman said in December the bank would not pay dividends in the near term.

(Editing by Nick Macfie)

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