Citigroup profit rises on asset sale gain, lower costs

REUTERS - Citigroup Inc reported a higher quarterly profit as it kept costs lower, recorded a large gain from an asset sale and had a smaller-than-expected decline in trading revenue.

Revenue from trading bonds and stocks fell 11 percent from a year earlier but the figure was not as bad as the 15 percent decline Chief Financial Officer John Gerspach projected at a conference three weeks before the end of the third quarter.

The company's shares were slightly higher at $75 in pre-market trade.

Major Wall Street banks have seen a steady decline in market trading activity, which was boosted last year on higher global macroeconomic uncertainty, especially around Brexit and the U.S. presidential election.

The fourth-biggest U.S. bank by assets said on Thursday that net income rose to $4.13 billion in the third quarter ended Sept. 30 from $3.84 billion a year earlier.

Earnings per share rose about 15 percent to $1.42 from $1.24 as the company shrank the number of shares outstanding by 7 percent - buying back stock under its biggest capital return plan approved by the U.S. Federal Reserve.

Results included a $355 million gain, worth 13 cents a share, from the previously disclosed sale of a fixed income market analytics and index business.

Analysts on average had expected earnings of $1.32, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S. It was not immediately clear if the numbers were comparable.

The bank's total revenue rose about 2 percent to $18.17 billion. Expenses were $10.17 billion, 2 percent lower than last year.

Since taking the helm five years ago, Chief Executive Michael Corbat has pushed to improve shareholder returns by cutting expenses, shrinking the bank and freeing up capital to buy back stock.

Return on tangible common equity rose to 8.4 percent from 7.8 percent. Corbat's target for the measure of profitability is 10 percent in 2019 and 14 percent in the longer-term.

JPMorgan Chase & Co, the biggest U.S. bank by assets, earlier on Thursday reported a better-than-expected quarterly profit, but said its bond trading revenue slumped 27 percent.

(Reporting by Sweta Singh in Bengaluru and David Henry in New York; Editing by Bernard Orr)