Prince Alwaleed asks US to sell stake in Citigroup.

Prince Alwaleed bin Talal, a big investor in Citigroup, has urged the US government to sell its stake in the bank as soon as this year to boost investor confidence, according to repots in the trade press. "The earlier the US government exits its investments in those companies, the better," as long as the withdrawal is not done in a way that hurts the prices of US banking stocks, the Saudi billionaire was quoted as saying in an interview published recently. "We need to give confidence back to the shareholders and investors that these companies are moving along without government support." A series of bailouts during the financial crisis has left the US government with a 34 per cent stake in Citigroup, after the bank obtained $45 billion from the government's Troubled Asset Relief Program.

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