Citigroup

Citibank/ Citigroup/ Citicorp/ Citi. Until a near-meltdown, following the “sub prime crisis” of 2007-08, this was the world’s biggest financial services provider. In February 2009, the US Treasury agreed a deal whereby it would take up a 36% holding in the bank.

Since 2005, Citigroup has participated in several major “revolving credit” placements with mining companies. These companies include: with

• AngloGold Ashanti (RC: US$ 700 million);
• Barrick Gold (US$1.5 billion);
• PT Freeport Indonesia (US$ 465 million);
• Newmont Mining (US$ 2 billion)

Citicorp Nominees Pty Ltd is the fifth largest shareholder (7.67%) in Fortescue Metals (see ANZ Nominees); a 3.5% shareholder in Medusa Mining Ltd (see Gazmetall), active in gold-copper forays in the Philippines [company website, 14 January 2009]; and it held 1.51% of Extract Resources, as of September 2007.

The Nominees are, collectively, the 6th largest group of shareholders in Australian gold exploration company, Millenium Minerals Ltd.

The Nominees are also the largest stakeholders (at 18.2%) in the Ausralian company, Kingsrose, which has a licence to exploit one of Indonesia's most promising new gold mines, Way Linggo in Sumatra [MJ 24 June 2011].

In April 2007, Citi provided a bridge loan to Vedanta Resources PLC (US$ 1.1 billion euros) and, two months later, arranged a share issue (IPO) of US$ 2 billion, to enable Vedanta’s subsidiary, Sterlite Resources, to trade on the New York Stock Exchange [Bank Secrets 2007].

Citi’s self-owned or managed shares include:

[Bank Secrets 2007]

Citigroup, as of December 2007, held 4.03% of POSCO (see also: Alliance Bernstein, and Berkshire Hathaway).

On 2 February 2009, along with Macquarie Bank Ltd, Citigroup managed a share offering, aimed at raising US$130 million for Hong Kong-based Real Gold Mining – the second biggest IPO in Hong Kong since October 2008 [South China Morning Post, 2 February 2009].

A day later (on 3 February 2009) Citigroup Global Markets Inc. and J.P. Morgan Securities Inc., with BMO Capital Markets as lead manager, raised around $US 1.7 billion in a public offerings of 34,500,000 shares of common stock, and $517.5 million of convertible senior notes due 2012, for Newmont Mining. The US’ leading gold company intends to use the net proceeds to fund acquisition of the remaining one-third interest in its huge Boddington gold project in Western Australia [PR Newswire/First Call, 3 February 2009].

In November 2010, Citigroup Global Markets Asia Ltd conducted an IPO (Initial Public Offering) for Toronto-listed China Gold International Resources Corp, in order for it to finance acquisition of a company called Skyland Mining Ltd, whose assets include the Jiama copper mine in Tibet.

On completion of the deal, Jiama would become the second mine controlled by China Gold International in the Chinese-occupied Tibetan autonomous region.

In October 2010, at a special shareholders' meeting in Toronto to finalise this deal, the company was confronted by dozens of Tibetans and Tibet supporters, who called on Citi to immediately withdraw from the occupied country.

The demonstators claimed that the Jiama mine would trespass on the sacred birthplace of the major Tibetan historical figure, King Songtsen Gampo - who unified the Tibetan empire in the seventh century.

In 2009, Tibetans in Jiama had protested against water contamination and resettlement of nomads, allegedly resulting from the mining operations [Press Release, Canadian Students for a Free Tibet, 14 October 2010].

One of the largest mining-related IPOs (Initial Public Offerings) of 2010 was by India's largest state-owned mining company, Coal India Ltd (CIL): Citigroup managed the share issue, along with Morgan Stanley, Kotak Mahindra Capital, Enam Securities, Deutsche Bank AG (DB) and Bank of America (Bank of America-Merrill Lynch) [FT 13 September 2010].

On the eve of the climate change conference (Conference of Parties) held in Durban, South Africa, in late 2011, four organisations (urgewald of Germany, BankTrack, and South Africa groups Earthlife Africa and groundWork)identified Citi as the second heaviest financier of coal fired electricity and coal mining in the period 2005-2011. According to their report, the bank had released no fewer than 13, 751 million euros of such funding [Bankrolling Climate Change, urgewald et al, 2011].