Pandit Says Citigroup Having Best Quarter Since 2007

March 10 (Bloomberg) — Citigroup Inc. Chief Executive Officer Vikram Pandit said his bank is having the best quarter since 2007, when it last posted a profit. The shares rose 38 percent and helped spur gains for finance company stocks.

“I am most encouraged with the strength of our business so far in 2009,” Pandit wrote in an internal memorandum obtained today by Bloomberg. “We are profitable through the first two months of 2009 and are having our best quarter-to-date performance since the third quarter of 2007.”

Citigroup has logged five quarters of losses totaling more than $37.5 billion since it posted a $2.1 billion profit in the third quarter of 2007. Once the world’s biggest bank by market value, it fell below $1 in New York trading last week for the first time as investors lost confidence that the shares can recover after losses and a government rescue.

“I am, like you, disappointed with our current stock price and the broad-based misperceptions about our company and its financial position,” Pandit, 52, said in the memo, adding that the price doesn’t reflect the New York-based bank’s capital strength and earnings potential.

Citigroup gained 40 cents to $1.45 in composite trading on the New York Stock Exchange at 4:03 p.m. The stock tumbled 93 percent in the past year, cutting the bank’s market value to about $7.9 billion. The bank is the smallest company and the worst-performing stock in the 30-member Dow Jones Industrial Average.