Citi seeks potential partners in bid for Wachovia: report

(Reuters) - Citigroup Inc (C.N) is looking for potential partners in its bid for Wachovia Corp WB.N, seeking to wrest the upper hand from Wachovia's other suitor Wells Fargo & Co (WFC.N), the Wall Street Journal said, citing people familiar with the matter.

Citigroup's goal is to win a bigger share of Wachovia's deposits, but not to take over the entire company, one person told the paper.

Citigroup was trying on Tuesday to line up other companies, including non-banks, to join its bid but it was not clear who the bank had approached or how such an alliance would be structured, the paper added.

A spokesman from Citigroup declined to comment.

Wells Fargo and Citigroup are locked in an intense battle for Wachovia, a bank that has been hobbled by the mortgage crisis, but has a large network of branches.

Wells Fargo was likely to get about 75 to 80 percent of Wachovia's deposits, while Citigroup was likely to get the remainder, a person briefed on the matter had told Reuters on Tuesday.

(Reporting by Savio D'Souza in Bangalore; Editing by Anshuman Daga/Hans Peters)