NEW YORK: Citigroup Inc, the fourth-biggest US bank by assets, reported a 10.5 percent drop in quarterly profit, but beat analysts’ expectations as revenue from investment banking and fixed-income trading rose.
The bank’s net income fell to $3.84 billion, or $1.24 per share, in the third quarter ended Sept. 30 from $4.29 billion, or $1.35 per share, a year earlier.
Total adjusted revenue fell 4 percent to $17.76 billion.
Analysts on average had estimated earnings of $1.16 per share and revenue of $17.36 billion, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S.
Citigroup’s shares rose 1.8 percent to $49.32 in premarket trading.
Revenue from investment banking rose 15 percent to $1.09 billion, while revenue from fixed-income trading was up 35 percent at $3.47 billion.
However, equity markets revenue fell about 34 percent due to lower market activity.
In the year-earlier quarter, the bank recorded a gain of $180 million on the sale of a business in Mexico and a $140 million valuation adjustment in its equity markets division.
Citigroup, the most international of the large US banks, has been exiting less-profitable operations in markets around the world, consolidating back offices and cutting jobs to become leaner.
Adjusted revenue from Citicorp, the bank’s core business, rose 0.6 percent to $16.88 billion, while expenses rose 3 percent to $9.58 billion.
Earlier, Wells Fargo & Co. reported a 3.7 percent fall in quarterly profit.
Citigroup said operating expenses fell 2.5 percent to $10.40 billion.
“In the quarter, both our Global Consumer Bank and Institutional Clients group had solid year-over-year revenue increases in nearly every business line and geography,” CEO Michael Corbat said in a statement.
The lender said its return on tangible common equity, a key measure of profitability, fell to 7.8 percent from 8.9 percent a year earlier.
Corbat set a target of reaching a 10 percent return on equity by 2015 shortly after taking the helm in 2012.
But the bank has found it hard to hit the target as its earnings are squeezed by low interest rates and the US Federal Reserve’s requirement that banks retain more capital. The lender said revenue from its North American branded card business rose 15 percent to $2.2 billion, reflecting the addition of the Costco portfolio as well as modest organic growth driven by higher volumes.
The business accounts for about a quarter of its total net income and a third of profit from its global consumer franchises.
Citigroup executives have said the branded card business is expected to generate a 2.3 percent return on assets, more than double the profitability of the entire company.
The bank’s common equity Tier 1 capital rose to 12.6 percent from 12.5 percent in the second quarter even as Citigroup returned capital to shareholders through dividends and share buybacks.
The stock had lost 6.3 percent this year as of Thursday’s closing price of $48.47.
Citigroup’s stock has languished at a steep discount to its tangible book value, which was $64.71 at the end of September.
Citigroup profit falls 10.5%, but beats expectations
Citigroup profit falls 10.5%, but beats expectations
‘The age of electricity’: WEF panel says geopolitics is redefining global energy security
- Surging demand, critical minerals, US-China rivalry reshaping energy security as nations compete for influence, infrastructure, control over world’s energy future
LONDON: Electricity is rapidly replacing oil as the world’s most strategic energy commodity, and nations are racing to secure reliable supply and influence in a changing energy landscape.
Global electricity demand is growing nearly three times faster than overall energy consumption, driven by artificial intelligence, electric vehicles, and rising use of air-conditioning in a warming world.
“We are entering the age of electricity,” said Fatih Birol, the executive director of the International Energy Agency, during a panel discussion titled “Who is Winning on Energy Security?” at the World Economic Forum in Davos on Tuesday.
Unlike oil, electricity cannot be stockpiled at scale, forcing governments and companies to prioritize generation, transmission, and storage, making regions with stable infrastructure increasingly important on the global stage.
US-China rivalry
Energy security is increasingly about control and influence, not just supply. The rivalry between the US and China now extends beyond oil to critical minerals, energy infrastructure, and long-term energy partnerships.
“The contrast between the US approach and China’s is stark,” said Meghan O’Sullivan, director of Harvard University’s Belfer Center. “The US, until recently, focused on access, not control. China flips that, seeking long-term influence and making producers more dependent on them.”
O’Sullivan highlighted China’s Belt and Road Initiative, which invests in energy infrastructure and critical minerals across Africa, Latin America, and Asia to secure influence over production and supply chains.
“It’s not just the desire to control oil production itself, but to control who develops resources,” she said, citing Venezuela as an example. The South American nation holds some of the world’s largest crude oil reserves, giving it outsized geopolitical importance. Recent US moves to expand influence over Venezuelan oil flows illustrate the broader trend that great powers are competing to shape who benefits from energy resources, not just the resources themselves.
“There’s no question that the intensified geopolitical competition between great powers is playing out in more competition for energy resources, particularly as the energy system becomes more complex,” O’Sullivan added.
Global drivers of the electricity era
The rise of electricity as a strategic commodity is also transforming global supply chains. Copper, lithium, and other minerals have become essential to modern energy systems.
“A new ‘energy commodity’ is copper,” said Mike Henry, CEO of BHP. “Electricity demand is growing three times faster than primary energy, and copper is essential for wires, data centers, and renewable energy. We expect a near doubling, about a 70 percent increase in copper demand over 25 years.”
Yet deposits are harder to access, refining is concentrated in a few countries, and supply chains are politically exposed.
“The world’s ability to generate electricity reliably will increasingly depend on materials and infrastructure outside traditional oil and gas markets,” Birol said.
AI and digital technologies amplify the challenge with large-scale data centers consuming enormous amounts of electricity.
The Middle East’s strategic relevance
While the global focus is on electricity demand and great-power rivalry, the Middle East illustrates how traditional energy hubs are adapting.
Majid Jafar, the CEO of Crescent Petroleum, highlighted the region’s enduring advantages: abundant reserves, low-carbon potential, and strategic geography.
“Geopolitical instability reinforces, if anything, the Middle East’s role as a supplier with scale, affordability, availability, and some of the lowest carbon reserves,” he said.
Jafar emphasized the region’s ability to navigate the growing US-China rivalry.
“Amid US-China global friction, the Middle East has managed to remain on good terms with both sides,” he said, noting that flexible policy and engagement help preserve influence while balancing competing interests.
The region is also adapting to the electricity-driven era. AI data centers and digital technologies are multiplying power needs. Jafar said: “One minute of video consumes roughly an hour’s electricity for an average Western household. Multiply that across millions of servers and billions of people and the scale is staggering.”
Infrastructure investments further strengthen the Middle East’s strategic position. In the Kurdistan Region of Iraq, the Runaki Project has expanded natural gas–fueled power plants to provide 24/7 electricity to millions of residents and businesses, reducing reliance on diesel generators and supporting economic growth.
According to Jafar, the combination of energy resources, capital, leadership, and agile policymaking gives the Middle East a competitive edge in meeting global electricity demand and navigating the complex geopolitics of energy.
While the panel highlighted the Middle East as one example, in the age of electricity, energy security is defined as much by influence and infrastructure as by barrels of oil, with the US-China rivalry determining who gains and who is left behind.
