Citi Unit Seeks Bids for Sales Arm: Report

Executives at Citigroup's(C) Primerica Financial Services subsidiary have approached private-equity firms including J.C. Flowers, Blackstone Group(BX) and TPG to gauge their interest in buying the division's sales arm, Bloomberg reports, citing four people familiar with the matter.

The unit employs about 100,000 workers.

Bloomberg reports executives started the talks after Citigroup failed to find a buyer for the entire life insurance company in the past year. The bank hasn't endorsed the plan, the people said.

Citigroup spokesman Stephen Cohen declined to comment for Bloomberg, as did Blackstone and TPG. J. Christopher Flowers, founder of the private equity firm that bears his name, didn't return a call seeking comment. Primerica executives declined to comment through a spokesman.

In one plan under discussion, the marketing arm would split from Citigroup and start selling policies backed by a new insurer, while Citigroup would retain assets and liabilities from Primerica policies that already have been sold, two of the people said, Bloomberg reports.

The news agency reports Citigroup sought buyers for the unit last year and held discussions over a three-way deal to sell it to Flowers and Protective Life(PL), but the talks ended without a deal being reached.

The stress test results announced by the Federal Reserve last week revealed that the country's 19 biggest financial institutions will need to raise $75 billion as a buffer against loan losses through the remainder of the economic downturn. It was determined Citigroup would need to raise an additional $5.5 billion.

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