Morgan Stanley and Citigroup may combine brokerage business

Morgan Stanley may establish a joint brokerage company with Citigroup. Agreement can be signed by the parties already next week. According to the scheme under discussion, the two financial groups will establish a joint brokerage company, in which Citigroup will initially have 49% of Morgan Stanley - 51% of the shares. In this case, Morgan Stanley will receive an option to buy shares of Citigroup in a joint venture in the next 3-5 years and within the Citi deal directly pay a certain amount. Possible association of brokerage businesses of Citigroup and Morgan Stanley will be another dramatic step in changing the face of Wall Street. The joint venture may also be a step to reform itself Citigroup, which was built over the years as a huge "financial supermarket", Interfax reported, citing The Wall Street Journal. Citi, who suffered huge losses received from the U.S. government last fall, emergency assistance to $ 45 billion. The decisive actions of the U.S. government to stabilize the situation could not, however, remove questions regarding what will be the main strategy of the bank. Before it became clear that Citigroup will receive assistance from the government, the leadership of the bank is considering various options for the section of the company or selling assets. In May, CEO Vikram Pandit said the bank that plans to sell the assets of Citigroup's $ 400 billion over the next three years as part of business restructuring. Citigroup is considering selling Mexican "daughter" - Grupo Financiero Banamex SA - and the creation of a special legal entity to which will be transferred to fixed assets to improve the balance of the group.