Citigroup

Risk & Insurance, Feb, 2002

Financial services giant Citigroup, New York, will sell up to 20 percent of its Travelers Property Casualty insurance unit to the public, and give the rest to its shareholders next year. The IPO could raise about $5 billion. The spin off is the first since the company created an integrated financial services firm four year ago.

At the time, the merger of Citicorp and Travelers was hailed by many as creating a new playing field for the industry and leading to additional megamergers. Analysts now say that the property-casualty business makes the least sense for Citigroup because of its weaker growth rate as well as because of the difficulty in cross-selling.