Citigroup has no need to sell more assets, says CFO

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: Citigroup Inc chief financial officer Gary Crittenden said the bank will hold onto assets in emerging markets as it focuses on faster-growing regions after receiving a $20 billion government cash injection.

“Our emerging markets franchise is the core of the company,” Crittenden said in a Bloomberg Television interview on Tuesday. “From a capital standpoint there is no need for us to sell assets at this point, although we’ll continue to work away on non-strategic assets.”

The company’s capital ratios are in the “top tier” among large US banks after it raised funds and pared assets by $300 billion, Crittenden said.

Citigroup received $306 billion of guarantees yesterday for troubled mortgages and toxic assets from the US government to stabilize the New York-based bank, which has $2 trillion of assets and operations in more than 100 countries. HSBC Holdings Plc Chairman Stephen Green said yesterday the London-based firm would consider buying the “right” assets from Citigroup in the event of a breakup or sale.

Global banks including Citigroup, Standard Chartered Plc and HSBC are putting more emphasis on emerging markets in Asia, the Middle East and South America as the US and European economies sink into recession. The US accounted for 45% of Citigroup’s net revenue last year, down from 59% in 2005, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. The share coming from Asia almost doubled in the period, to 17.1%.

“It will be very painful if Citi jettisons any of its key businesses in Asia at this point of time,” said Emmanuel Daniel, president of The Asian Banker, in a Bloomberg Television interview. “It’ll probably be more likely to scale down some of the large markets it operates.”

Citigroup’s crisis escalated as it was forced to take on its balance sheet a number of special units created to invest in riskier securities. The bank’s shares lost 60% last week and recouped some of those losses yesterday after the government’s rescue. Other US lenders remain vulnerable.

Wells Fargo & Co is absorbing Wachovia Corp, the bank that regulators pushed in September to merge amid mounting losses from $120 billion in a portfolio of home loans. Bank of America Corp has taken on both Countrywide Financial Corp., once the biggest independent mortgage lender, and Merrill Lynch & Co, the securities dealer hobbled by $24 billion of losses. Morgan Stanley slumped almost one-third in the past three months.