Prince Alwaleed Says Citigroup (C) Is On the Right Path

Citigroup (NYSE: C) received a show of confidence from Saudi billionaire Prince Alwaleed bin Talal who said that the U.S. bank was on the right path and the worst is now behind it, according to a report from Reuters.

Alwaleed, one of the world's wealthiest individuals and a head of Kingdom Holding, said that he was cutting his capital by nearly half and agreed to a transfer free-of-charge to Kingdom's balance sheet of 180 million shares of Citigroup. The shares were valued by Alwaleed's Kingdom Holding at $3.31 each.

Alwaleed added that he sees the end of the global economic crisis that had a severely negative impact on Kingdom in sight, and that the U.S. bank will return to positive results in 2011. Kingdom receives most of its revenue from its shareholdings' dividends.

The firm's currently has a $4.3 billion investment in Citigroup, according to the closing price of the bank’s stock on Friday.

Alwaleed holds a 95 percent stake in Kingdom and stated that the results for the last quarter and full year 2009 would be positive, after the recent capital decrease cancels all the accumulated losses at the investment firm.

Shares of Citigroup are currently up 2 percent before the market opening on Monday.

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