JSM Financial: Citigroup Inc. in advanced negotiations to sell hedge business.

Feb. 24, 2010 - PRLog -- JSM Financial has been informed that SkyBridge Capital, a leading global alternative investment firm, is involved in advanced negotiations to purchase Citigroup’s hedge fund business which is said to have in the region of $4 billion in assets.

Late last year Citigroup Inc. announced that it intended to divest itself of billions of dollars worth of non-core assets as a result of the global financial crisis and the U.S. federal government having taken a part ownership of the bank.

JSM Financial has learned that Citi is presently selling around $1 billion of hedge fund investments, $2.5 million in hedge fund assets that it directly advises and another $500 million in investments in smaller hedge funds.

To date no sale price has been released and no deal has yet been signed. It is also believed that Citigroup’s managers are expected to retain their jobs if the deal should go through, as historically, Skyebridge has taken a share of the mangers.

JSM Financial sources indicate that in 2009 Citigroup Inc’s core-of-fund investments showed slightly better performance than average returns of global hedge funds, up about 21%.

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