Citi to Sell Remaining Stake in Primerica

Primerica Inc said Citigroup (NYSE:C) had begun a public offering of its remaining stake in the life insurer, a little over a year after the company was spun-off from the bank through a public listing.

Primerica, which went public in 2010 and is now partly owned by private equity firm Warburg Pincus, said Citigroup would sell about 8 million Primerica shares in the offering.

Last month, Primerica bought back $200 million of its shares from Citigroup, as the bank looks to reduce its non-core assets.

The insurer was one of the building blocks of the Citigroup financial empire put together by former CEO Sandy Weill, but losses following the sub-prime mortgage crisis and a $45 billion government bailout led to the spin-off of Primerica in an initial public offering.

Citigroup's stake in the company is held through Citi Holdings, the unit in which the bank keeps assets and businesses it is exiting.

Since its creation in 2009, Citi Holdings has been cut to half its size. At the end of the third quarter, Citi Holdings had $289 billion in assets. Citigroup's shares were up 2 percent at $27.63 in premarket trade. They closed at $27.22 on Monday on the New York Stock Exchange.

Primerica's shares closed at $23.22