Citigroup joins bid to buy £13bn of Northern Rock assets
Citigroup has signed up to a consortium, led by Goldman Sachs, in an attempt to buy up a &pound;13bn package of mortgage assets owned by British taxpayers called Granite. The sale of Granite, which was created by Northern Rock and is part of UK Asset Resolution (UKAR), forms part of a huge privatisation programme by Chancellor George Osborne. Citigroup's involvement in the consortium is considered interesting due to its role in advising the government in 2007 when Northern Rock was teetering on the brink of collapse. The Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) has also expressed interest in buying Granite, a move that would allow the bank to deploy some of its surplus liquidity on its balance sheet. However, RBS is restricted from making acquisitions above a certain price until it completes its sale of Williams &amp; Glyn.
Citigroup has reportedly joined a bid for £13bn-worth of mortgage assets owned by UK taxpayers.

Sky News reports that Citi has joined forces with Goldman Sachs and units of Blackstone, TPG Capital and New York-based hedge fund Och-Ziff for mortgage securitisation vehicle Granite, which is now part of UK Asset Resolution.

It is not yet clear what the terms of the deal are and the US bank declined to comment on the story when asked to by Sky News.

The sale process is expected to start within the next few weeks, says the news organisation.

The granite securitisation programme was started by Northern Rock in 2001 and allowed it to fund its mortgage book by selling securities to institutional investors. At 31 January it held £13.2bn of mortgages funded by £9bn of securities, the remaining balance being funded by NRAM.

UKAR is the holding company established to bring together the Government-owned businesses of Bradford & Bingley and Northern Rock Asset Management, supporting around 389,000 customers with over £50bn of loans.