Citi Buys Highway After Exiting Road to Ruin

Citigroup's (C Quote) purchase of a Spanish highway operator may come as a surprise to investors expecting the struggling banking titan to scale back in the wake of a government bailout last month.

Spanish construction company Sacyr Vallehermoso said Monday it has agreed to sell its highway-operating unit, Itinere, to alternative investment unit Citi Infrastructure Investors in a deal valued at nearly 7.9 billion euros ($10 billion).

The sale involves 2.87 billion euros in cash and 5 billion euros in assumed debt. Citi will offer to buy all of Itinere's stock at 3.96 euros ($5.04) a share, the Spanish construction company said. ...