Folding the umbrella

16 Jan 2007 By John Christy

Citigroup is refashioning its image by dropping its famous red umbrella and changing its name to simply Citi . The umbrella has come to represent an unwieldy set of businesses. Maybe Prince should consider disposals rather than rebranding.

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Citigroup is planning to rebrand itself as simply Citi and drop its trademark red umbrella from the company logo, according to a report by the New York Times. The umbrella was long associated with Travelers Insurance, which Sandy Weill merged with Citicorp in 1998 to form Citigroup. The Travelers business was spun off by Citi in 2002. Two years later, the insurer merged with the St. Paul Companies to form St. Paul Travelers.

In the past year, Citi shares have risen just 16%, trailing gains of 42% for Morgan Stanley and 62% at Goldman Sachs. Rival Bank of America, which briefly eclipsed Citi by market value last year, rose 22% over the same period.

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