Citibank (C.US) withdrew from the Russian market at a heavy cost and sold the remaining business and is expected to lose a huge loss of 1.1 billion US dollars

The Zhitong Finance App learned that Citigroup (C.US) said it is expected to generate an after-tax loss of about 1.1 billion US dollars due to the sale of its remaining business in Russia to Renaissance Capital (RenCap for short).

According to a regulatory document submitted on Monday, the bank plans to list this portion of the remaining business as “held for sale” in the fourth quarter earnings report and is expected to complete the sale of AO Citibank in the first half of 2026.

In the face of escalating US and EU sanctions, Citi has been considering withdrawing from the Russian market for many years. Other banks have also shrunk their operations, and Goldman Sachs Group was given permission to sell its Russian business earlier this year.

Long before the Russia-Ukraine conflict escalated in 2022, Citi had begun to scale back its local operations. Back then, the bank announced that it would gradually shut down Russian consumer and local commercial banking services, and almost completely stop institutional banking business. According to its official website, the remaining business is only necessary to fulfill some uncompleted legal and regulatory obligations.

Currently, Citi has reached an agreement with RenCap, one of Russia's oldest investment banks, to sell the remaining business. Russian President Vladimir Putin signed an order approving the deal in November.

The statement said that losses are mainly related to currency conversion adjustments; the bank warned that if the foreign exchange market fluctuates, the amount of losses may change further.

“The overall divestment of the remaining business is expected to generate positive gains in Citigroup's core Tier 1 capital (CET1). This positive impact is mainly due to the de-merger effect of related risk-weighted assets.”