Citi to hold emergency board meeting: report

By Dan Wilchins

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Citigroup Inc's (C.N: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) board of directors is holding an emergency meeting this weekend, Dow Jones reported on Friday.

Citigroup's poor stock performance -- the bank's shares have fallen more than 30 percent this year and are trading at their lowest level since April 2003 -- has left many investors urging the ouster of Chief Executive Chuck Prince.

The agenda for the weekend board meeting was not immediately clear, but removing Chuck Prince or taking write-downs may come up, Dow Jones said.

If Prince is ousted, Citi director Robert Rubin is being considered as an interim replacement, but he is reluctant to take the responsibility, Dow Jones said.

"You can imagine the pressure they're feeling from the market's reaction to negative news and their continuing inability to reassure the market," said Thomas Russo, a partner at Gardner Russo & Gardner in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, which invests more than $3 billion and owns Citi shares.

Michael Hanretta, a spokesman for Citi, declined to comment.

Citigroup said on October 15 that third-quarter profit slid 57 percent as losses mounted in areas including subprime mortgages and corporate loans to junk-rated companies.

Those results included $6.5 billion of pretax losses and write-downs in subprime mortgage bonds and other assets. Write-downs combined with some $25 billion of acquisitions over the last year have left Citigroup's capital levels relatively low.