[toboramai]

Citigroup Inc. Chief Executive Officer Vikram Pandit faces an ``impossible feat'' in turning around the biggest U.S. bank as it faces ``seismic'' costs to restructure, Oppenheimer & Co. analyst Meredith Whitney said.

Citigroup will be forced to announce the sale of major businesses toward the end of this year or in early 2009, Whitney, who recommends investors sell the shares, said in a Bloomberg TV interview today. One of the units could be Banamex, the company's Mexican branch, she said.

Whitney, 38, correctly predicted on Oct. 31 that New York- based Citigroup would cut its dividend to shore up capital after mortgage-related writedowns. Pandit on May 9 outlined plans to sell $400 billion in assets at the bank, which has booked more than $40 billion of credit losses and writedowns since the subprime mortgage market collapsed last year.

``I think it's an impossible feat,'' Whitney said. ``They don't have the revenue power, they don't have the earnings power in so many of their businesses. Even Stephen Hawking could not pull this off,'' she said, referring to the British physicist.

Whitney said she expects Citigroup, which lost a record $10 billion in the fourth quarter, to post ``de minimis'' profit during the next three to five years. She repeated her prediction that Pandit would be forced to lower the dividend again, and didn't give an estimate for restructuring costs. She estimated a loss this year of 45 cents a share.

I cannot link because I do not meet the 15 post requirement but the quote is from bloomberg article.

Do not buy Citi and tread lightly with any other financial stock. If you do not understand the current financial crisis, you should not be speculating on financial stocks.