Saudi prince backs Prince

The largest shareholder of Citigroup has expressed confidence in chief executive Charles Prince and does not want to see a breakup of the company. Saudi's Prince Alwaleed bin Talal’s comments, made in the most recent edition of Institutional Investor magazine, come 10 months after an interview with Reuters in which he had called on Mr. Prince to make "draconian" cost cuts. "We have to give Citigroup some time to perform," Mr. Alwaleed said. "[First-quarter results] have beaten their estimates on both the revenue side and the earnings per share side. So I hope Citigroup is on the right track. We are monitoring the situation. We are very close to Chuck Prince, and he has our vote of confidence." Mr. Alwaleed's comments come amid pressure on Mr. Prince from some shareholders to boost revenue, keep costs down and help improve Citigroup's stock price. The New York-based bank said in May that Citigroup planned to cut as many as 17,000 jobs and will take a $1.38 billion pre-tax charge in an effort to save the $2.1 billion in expenses (InvestmentNews, April 10) .