Treasury to sell remaining Citigroup stake through offering

The U.S. Department of the Treasury said it plans a public offering of its remaining 2.4 billion shares of Citigroup Inc. (NYSE: C) common stock.

The Treasury noted that completion of the offering would depend on whether it receives an “acceptable” price for the shares.

Approximately 7.7 billion shares of Citigroup transferred to the Treasury in July 2009 in connection with the taxpayer bailout of the banking giant.

Treasury has disposed of the other 5.3 billion shares to date in at-the-market sales.

Upon completion of the offering, the Treasury would continue to hold warrants for Citigroup’s common stock that were also issued as part of Citigroup’s participation in Treasury programs.

In addition, the Treasury is entitled to receive up to $800 million in Trust Preferred Securities held by the FDIC that the FDIC is required to turn over to Treasury unless it incurs any losses on debt of Citigroup guaranteed by the FDIC under the Temporary Liquidity Guarantee Program.

Citigroup shares closed at unchanged at $4.45 per share as of Monday’s close. The stock has gained about 34 percent this year, but is not much higher from where they were in November 2008 (when the company first received the bailout).

Citigroup shares had plunged to as low as $1.03 per share in early March 2009.