A number of investors have tried to take money out of a hedge fund operated by Citigourp (NYSE: C). The fund make investments in corporate bonds. According to The Wall Street Jounal (subscription required), the bank "suspended redemptions in CSO Partners, a fund specializing in corporate debt, after investors tried to yank more than 30% of the fund's roughly $500 million in assets." Citigroup has had to put $100 million into the unit.

While the problem with this hedge fund is fairly modest in financial terms, it raises the question of how many other hedge funds the company may have to bail out. Does the bank have to put in another $1 billion to rescue these operations if they run into trouble? Or, could the number be larger than that.

Citigroup already faces skeptical investors who want to know how much more the bank may have to write-down for subprime mortgage instruments this year. Now Wall Street has the additional anxiety of problems at the company's hedge funds.

Douglas A. McIntyre is an editor at 247wallst.com.

Citigroup blocks withdrawals from a hedge fund originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Fri, 15 Feb 2008 08:40:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

MAJOR PAPERS:

• The Wall Street Journal reported that the focus of reports of four deaths and 350 allergic reactions to Baxter International Inc's (NYSE: BAX) generic version of the blood thinner drug Heparin, and the ingredients supplied by a Chinese manufacturer, also includes Wisconsin-based Scientific Protein Laboratories, a co-owner of the Chinese manufacturing plant, and majority owned by American Capital Strategies Ltd (NASDAQ: ACAS), a Maryland buyout firm.
• Citigroup Incorporated (NYSE: C) has suspended investors at its CSO Partners hedge fund from withdrawing their money after they attempted to pull more than 30% of the fund's nearly $500M in assets, the Wall Street Journal reported.
• AT&T Inc (NYSE: T) is seeking more revenue from India as it tries to expand its consumer mobile phone operations outside the U.S, the Financial Times reported.

• According to the New York Times, the FDA broke its own rules by approving for sale Baxter International's Heparin without first inspecting a Chinese plant where the drug's key ingredient is made.

Newspaper wrap-up: American Capital Strategies tied to Baxter's Heparin generic problems originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Fri, 15 Feb 2008 08:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.