• Most Popular
  • Most Shared

Investment Outlook Summit

Photo

Reuters talks to portfolio managers and strategists to find what's on the horizon. Learn how to position your portfolio in the year ahead.   Full Coverage 

FACTBOX: Five facts about CIT Group

NEW YORK
Sun Jul 19, 2009 6:05pm EDT

NEW YORK (Reuters) - CIT Group Inc, a lender to hundreds of thousands of small and mid-sized U.S. businesses, is struggling to stay afloat after bailout talks with the government ended.

Small Business

Here are a few facts about the company, which is now fighting to stave off bankruptcy:

* The company was founded in St Louis in 1908 and first sold stock to the public in 1924.

* Tyco International agreed to buy CIT for about $10 billion in 2001 but was forced to spin it off to shareholders a year later as Tyco struggled with a massive debt burden from such acquisitions.

* The commercial lender has more than $60 billion in finance and leasing assets and boasted on its website that 1 million business customers depended on it for financing.

* CIT, a Fortune 500 company that is a member of the Standard & Poor's 500 Index, closed at $1.64 on Wednesday, down from over $60 in June 2007.

* CIT Group, which had been based in Livingston, New Jersey, moved to a brand new, 28-story, glass-encased tower on Manhattan's Fifth Avenue in New York in April 2006.

(Reporting by Sweta Singh; Editing by Gary Hill)
Small Business


More from Reuters

A Greenpeace activist dressed as one of the "Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse" rides outside the parliament building during a brief protest in Copenhagen December 13, 2009. REUTERS/Christian Charisius

The face of climate protest

Protesters around the globe called for an end to global warming as climate talks in Copenhagen entered their sixth day.  Video 

    Climate conference
    In this photo reviewed by the U.S. Military, a guard leans on a fencepost as a Guantanamo detainee (L) jogs inside the exercise yard at Camp 5 detention center, at the U.S. Naval Base in Guantanamo Bay, January 21, 2009. REUTERS/Brennan Linsley/Pool

    Life after Guantanamo

    Critics are worried that Gitmo prisoners once dubbed "enemy combatants" will be using prisons as pulpits for anti-American rhetoric once they're moved to U.S. soil.  Full Article 

    U.S.
    Lockheed Martin Chief Executive Robert Stevens answers a question during the Reuters Aerospace and Defense Summit in Washington December 14, 2009. REUTERS/Molly Riley

    Lockheed eyes deals

    The future demands of cybersecurity make that sector one of many the aerospace giant sees as an acquisition target in the coming year.  Full Article 

    Aerospace and Defense Summit