Credit Mutuel to buy Citigroup for €4.9 billion

Credit Mutuel has announced that they are to buy Citigroup Inc. German retail operations for a reported €4.9 billion, that’s $7.7 billion. It is thought that Credit Mutuel will close the deal by the end of the year.

Citibank Deutschland has 3.3 million clients along with 340 agencies; the bank has 7% of the German consumer credit market. Credit Mutuel has 3,400 agencies; this is much more than many of the other banks in France.

Dow Jones Newswires had already reported a few weeks back that Credit Mutuel was in the race to buy Citi’s German operations.

U.S. banking giant Citigroup has been hit hard by the current credit crisis, which is why they have made the choice to put several activities up for sale just to boast up their finances.

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