Discuss the circumstances surrounding the spin-off of TPC by Citigroup.

Question

What will be an ideal response?

Answer 1

One of the reasons that Citigroup merged with Travelers was the ability to cross sell products across both
companies. Travelers was a company which was based heavily on commercial lines of business. Within this
segment it had extensive distribution channels to a network of commission based agents. The CEO Sanford Weill
was focused on boosting revenues primarily in the consumer segment. Data showed that Travelers experienced one
of the lowest rates of cross marketing success through 2000 and 2001. This is because of Travelers lack of strength
in personal lines and lack of their congruence between smaller business customers and the services offered by
Citigroup's banking affiliates. Banking customers of Citibank were more likely to use Salomon Smith Barney
services than insurance services offered by Travelers. Then September 11 happened and huge payouts followed in
the property casualty insurance industry. Travelers suffered hundreds of millions of dollars in losses and this hurt
short-term profitability. Although most companies look at their merged operations as a long-term business venture,
in this case the extenuating circumstances cause the CEO to spin-off the property-casualty division of Travelers into
a separate entity by selling 23% of that company in an IPO in March 2002. Although TPC signified 10% of
Citigroup's operating earnings, it was a slow-growing unit at seven to eight percent per annum compared to the rest
of Citigroup and thus it was decided to be separated, even though CEO Weill was known for his aggressive
acquisition strategy. He believed that he could exceed these returns by using the proceeds from the IPO sale to fund
better growth and higher margin businesses within Citigroup.