Citigroup says prepared for trading after power outages

Citigroup Inc said it is ready for markets to re-open on Wednesday despite power outages in the waterside neighborhood around its trading floors and flood damage in a building where its investment bankers are based.

"We are prepared for the re-opening of the markets, and will utilize our back-up locations to ensure continuity of operations until our staff can return to our Lower Manhattan offices," the company said in a statement Tuesday afternoon.

Earlier in the day, the company said that its building with trading floors at 390 Greenwich Street, which is a short distance north of the World Trade Center site, was running on power from a generator and was expected to be accessible in the next two days.

An adjacent skyscraper, where investment bankers work, sustained minor flooding from Hurricane Sandy and had no power, according to a Tuesday morning memo that was sent to employees and seen by Reuters. That building is also expected to be accessible in the next two days, the memo said. It is also used by Citigroup's transaction services unit, which caters to corporations and governments around the world.

A building at 111 Wall Street, which is the bank's third major facility in downtown Manhattan, was flooded and without power and would remain unavailable for several days, the memo said. The building is used by some of the company's processing and human resources staff.

Citigroup has a backup trading floor in New Jersey that it planned to use as of Sunday, sources said. Global investment banks generally have large trading desks in Europe and Asia that can help carry workloads for one another.

Bank branches were still closed in New York, New Jersey, Connecticut, Pennsylvania and Delaware, according to the memo. The bank said it was trying to open branches in Washington, D.C., Virginia, Maryland and Massachusetts on Tuesday afternoon.

The memo said damage assessments were continuing.

(Reporting by David Henry in New York; Editing by Leslie Gevirtz)