Even if there were a rationale for Citi buying a corporate jet now (which I cannot fathom, given their horrid financial condiiton), why buy new? There are no doubt plenty of used jets for sale right now.
This incident illustrates the degree to which a corporate/financial elite has developed in the US. Top executives feel they have a right to fly on private jets. If the company is, say, a Wal-Mart, with a lot of operations in remote areas where access by commercial flights is indirect, private jets make sense (Sam Walton famously flew his own plane to visit stores). But for Citigroup, where the vast majority of their operations are in major, well served financial centers, it’s hard to justify (the usual rationale is that the top brass can discuss business on a private plane, while they cannot do so on commercial flights. Funny how that was seldom seen as a justification in the early 1980s, when executives were for the most part content to fly first class).
From the New York Post (hat tip reader Marshall):
Beleaguered Citigroup is upgrading its mile-high club with a brand-new $50 million corporate jet – only this time, it’s the taxpayers who are getting screwed.
Even though the bank’s stock is as cheap as a gallon of gas and it’s burning through a $45 billion taxpayer-funded rescue, the airhead execs pushed through the purchase of a new Dassault Falcon 7X, according to a source familiar with the deal.
The French-made luxury jet seats up to 12 in a plush interior with leather seats, sofas and a customizable entertainment center, according to Dassault’s sales literature. It can cruise 5,950 miles before refueling and has a top speed of 559 mph.
There are just nine of these top-of-the-line models in the United States, with Dassault’s European factory churning out three to four 7Xs a month.
Citigroup decided to get its new wings two years ago, when the financial-services giant was flush with cash, but it still intends to take possession of the jet this year despite its current woes, the source said….
It’s not uncommon for large companies to pay a deposit on a new plane then cancel the order before delivery, according to a source in the corporate aviation business.
Citigroup execs are also quietly trying to unload two of their older Dassault 900EXs.
Those jets, nearly 10 years old, are worth an estimated $27 million each. They were still listed for sale yesterday on the Web site of Citigroup’s aviation broker, Aviation Professionals.
Update 9:00 AM, 1/27 Bloomberg reports that Citi is not backing down:
Citigroup Inc., the bank that received $45 billion in U.S. government funds, said it plans to buy new aircraft and sell older ones.
The transactions may lower operating costs because the new jet would be more fuel efficient, the bank said in a statement e- mailed to Bloomberg News.
“We signed a contract in 2005 for replacement aircraft, which was part of our plan to reduce the number of aircraft Citi owns and use more fuel-efficient aircraft,” the e-mail said. “Refusing delivery now would result in millions of dollars in penalties.”
The New York-based company said funds from the Troubled Asset Relief Program, or TARP, wouldn’t be used to buy aircraft. It didn’t provide details of the purchase plan in the e-mail.
Repeat after me: money is fungible.
51 comments
Comments are closed.
I was going to suggest putting all senior board members on that plane.. never mind.
Talk about tone deaf.
The public might not be able to understand the details of the off balance sheet assets, etc. but a corporate jet they understand.
The bankers were probably thinking that compared to blowing through billion on structured securities, what’s another $50 million. They are right — it isn’t the plane, it’s the billions. However the idiocy of this move is beyond the pale.
They saw what happened to AIG when they were holding sales meetings at resorts — something that is in theory pretty defendable, so they need to start thinking pr.
They didn’t fight very hard for the dividend, either.
It IS about the jet though. The jet and resorts are symbolic of the complete disconnect CEOs and executives have with the average person. When a small business is bleeding money the owner doesn’t run up his business line of credit buying a new truck, yet these people who somehow have become responsible for the nation’s finance have no sense of how to save. Fifty million may not be much but that is a single outed purchase out of thousands of wasteful transactions.
AIG and the GM/Chrysler Jets only makes this disconnect more obvious. No matter how poorly they perform these people are never going to have to worry about losing their home or car, at worse they’ll have to downgrade the size of their boat. As usual it will be the poor and middle class who has to take a beating for the mistakes of these idiots.
if they sell those two for near asking price, they didnt they just downsize two to one and upgrade two old ones to one new one with a longer service life and less maintence without having to eat a 5-10% (est) deposit?
I could give them a pass on this one even though i think they are all crooks.
Yves, you said: “the usual rationale is that the top brass can discuss business on a private plane, while they cannot do so on commercial flights.” Isn’t that part of the problem? All of this scheming amongst the top brass at 40,000 feet over the last decade is what’s gotten them into this mess. They need to fly commercial, read a book and stop talking to one another. It’s pretty clear that all of this “discussion” led to a shitpile of galatically stupid ideas. If flying commercial will lead to less discussion amongst the top brass of really idiotic ideas, then sell that new plane immediately to the highest bidder. (I say this as one of the many newly coerced part-owners of Citigroup.)
It’s a lot harder to exercise ones membership in the MHC these days, and Citi has its traditions to uphold.
Back in the late 80s the media and other faux populists got all excited about people buying yachts and and private planes. Wanting to look good Congress passed a 10% luxury tax on same, effective 1/1/90 The result: in 1991 sales of luxury boats dropped 70 per cent and employment in the boat building business dropped from 600,000 to 400,000 in one year. (You can read all about it in this New York Times item http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9E0CE7D9143AF934A35751C0A964958260&sec=&spon= from which the above statistics were taken).
I thought the government was trying to stimulate the economy. What's the difference between Citi buying the plane or lending the money to someone else to buy the plane.
By the way. Did you all know that the guy who designed John Thain's office is the guy Obama hired to redecorate the family quarters at the White House?
Look, I agree we're in one big mess, and, like this blog, I don't think we can borrow our way out of it. But all this populist posturing will get us to is a big Argentina.
The Gov should seize this thing tomorrow. shareholders get zero.
Management is GONE.
Spin off or sell the good assets. Hold or flush the rest.
Branches go to regional banks along with deposits and preforming loans. Give them this and the real estate in exchange for new shares. These need to be well run solvent banks, not just another failed bank.
MBS can be broken up into the underlying mortgages, the good ones sold off, the bad ones go to Fannie & Freddie to be modified, or foreclosed. The gov may have to finance the purchases.
The REO is held off the market until the housing crisis ends. If they are a wreck then bull-doze them. We have too many houses anyway.
The bonds they issued need to be retired, and exchanged for equity in the new or purchasing enterprises (take it or leave it).
All other assets like shares, bonds etc held by the company are sold at market price, and the rest is just flushed (written down to zero).
This will make many people angry, but they will loose less this way. Letting these beached whales stink up the financial world takes resources away from good banks. Get rid of them all and the sooner the better.
Lehamn caused problems because it was left for dead, and the market had to absorb everything as quickly as possible … very messy. This would be organized and transparent prrocess.
I guess they don’t want to risk “bird strikes” like what happened to the commercial flight that the BAC brass were on.
But still, they don’t deserve the new one, they should keep one old one, unless the deposit was very large.
The people who should be most upset about these antics are the shareholders. Where was their voice when all this stupidity was being foisted on the company? I thought the Board was supposed to watch out for the companies owners-obstensibly the shareholders. Ha-ha.
I agree that Citi buying a new jet at this point is indefensible. But the larger point is comparing the outrage this generates to the outrage over the rest of what the government spends.
It boggles my mind that there is seemingly a story about corporate excesses weekly, but you never see any articles on similar tone deaf expenditures by the government.
Our government was spending $3 trillion a year before this crisis occurred. Shouldn’t there be similar vigilance over how that money is spent?
Perfect. I would claim this is evidence of a near universal “right to loot” that has been asserted by this whole banker class. It goes way beyond presumed rights of entitlement or arrogance and reflects the total breakdown of what constitutes fiduciary responsibility. The notion that shareholder capital is to be used to serve these executives and all else be damned. Since financial institutions and franchises derive their value from their people, those at the top believe themselves justified in looting/stealing in any way possible. This is identical to John Thain spending $1.2 million to decorate his office or Jack Welch’s perquisites post-GE. Shameless…
Richard, there was a worldwide recession in 1990-1991. I imagine that had more to do with slowing sales than taxes. And the difference between a bank buying something and lending the money, is that City can lend 10 times what they can buy outright. And if Citi goes bust because they throw away money on unnecessary things like jets and bonuses, I’m sure you’ll still be there, decrying the nationalization that follows. Because government can never act more efficiently than the private sector, amirite?
The Duc de Saint-Simon, who bitingly chonicled Louis’s reign in his memoirs, wrote, “The abominable poison of flattery deified him in the very midst of Christendom.” One bowed to him, one bowed even to the food that he was to eat as it was carried along the corridors. One trembled before “his fearful majesty” as before the presence of God. Indeed, it is sometimes not easy to tell whether the King considered himself as God’s lieutenant on earth or God as his own lieutenant in heavan. After hearing the account of the disastrous battle of Ramillies, for example, Louis exclaimed: “What! Has God forgotten all I have done for Him?”
As a symbol of his authority, and to house his many courtiers, Louis created a colossal chateau on the scrubby marshlands of Versailles, some 10 miles west of Paris… For over 40 years thousands of workers–craftsmen, artisans and builders–labored to construct a showplace that is a perfect expression of Louis’s reign…
The huge structure, which covered some 15 acres and housed about 10,000 people, cost six of every 10 francs gathered by the King’s tax collectors…
The year 1686…marked the climax of Louis XIV’s reign… France was plunged into a series of disastrous wars. Commanded by generals who knew better how to maneuver at court than in the field, his armies suffered badly… Mismanagement was the consequence of entrusting the reins of the state to men equipped only for flattery. By the turn of the century, France was in deep decline…
Soon France showed signs of “universal bankruptcy.” The women of Les Halles, Paris’ central market, marched on Versailles to demand bread. On the battlefield defeat followed upon defeat. “Every day brings something new–never good,” remarked the Princess Palatine, Louis XIV’s sister-in-law… “At the court, all that remains is sadness, boredom and distrust,” wrote the Princess Palatine. And Saint-Simon, even more chillingly, wrote: “All was silence and suffering.”
–Pierre Schneider, The World of Watteau
Go ahead satan please finish your thought.
Can’t the CEO fly on a carpet instead?
It’s getting close to time to burn the frigging village. Banks first.
US TARP money, they could have at least bought a Cessna or Grumman jet. Cessna announced some heavy layoffs recently.
There is a fascinating discussion up at Institutional Risk Analytics
this evening on the big banks and the need to wind them up. Also some
informed discussion on Summers, Rubin, Geithner and Volcker.
Richard,
I disagree that this is populist posturing. The plane incident illustrates vividly what is wrong with how CEOs are rewarded in this country. The Louis XIV comparison is extreme but still apt. For too many companies, the pay and perks are completely out of line.
And the fact that that practice continues at Citi when the company is on life support, under intense scrutiny, and its top brass should know better says how deeply ingrained this behavior has become (and in a mere 15 or so years).
In the 1980s, when LBO firms first stalked the earth, one of their first acts with big corp acquisitions was to sell the jets and the corporate art collections. And these were HEALTHY companies! The jet was seen as an extravagance.
And the amount is not trivial either. $50 million is just the cost of the plane. You have other costs of ownership: the takepff/landing fees, storage, fuel, crew, licenses, fees, crew, catering, etc.
But let’s make some rough assumptions. Let’s say that the difference between purchase price of jet + NPV of operating costs over its life versus the NPV of alternative modes of transport (first class commercial and the occasional private jet rental ONLY when secrecy or bad logistics warrant it) is $40 million. If you assume fully loaded comp (salary, bonus, bennies, employer’s share of payroll taxes) for mid-low level bank employees is $100,000, that is equal to the cost of 400 jobs for one year.
That is morally indefensible in times like these.
I think there’s a relatively new Embreaer Regional Jet done in black and grey available.. The owner is under house arrest and even his wife had to hand in her passport.
As a bankruptcy attorney, I can barely contain my rage. Every day I meet middle class Americans who have blown through their exempt retirement accounts to pay their debts — many of them to Citigroup and other beneficiaries of taxpayer money. After they file Chapter 7, all they have left are the clothes on their back and whatever furniture they were able to carry away before the bank took their house. No job, no income, no assets — end of the road. Oh, and then they get a non-dischargable tax bill from the “people’s government” for the income they received when liquidating their 401(k) and IRA accounts.
When the French were victims of class warfare by the privileged few, they brought to Paris the guillotine. When the Chinese people were recently victimized by businessmen who poisoned their milk supply, those men were sentenced to die. Who has yet to pay for any of the financial crimes of the past decade? For Christ’s sake, even Maydoff is free on bail and has been charged with only one count of securities fraud!
These kind of stories are just meant to get people angry. While there are plenty of reasons to be angry at Citi, this is not really one of them. People need to realize how these bankers operate. Do they really expect that just because they have gotten government aid that they are all suddenly going to become Jimmy’s Stewert’s Savings and Loan. I am sure that all of these TARP banks are spending money on things that ordinary people think are extravagant. They are billionaires. They can’t help it!
Should AIG invite billionaire clients to stay at the Holiday Inn? Should Citi executives meet the President of China in Starbucks. Come on. None of it is realistic. That would cause them to lose the business.
But this brings us back to why this nationalization thing is not going to work well. The government doesn’t want to run banks any more than they want to run monetary policy. If they do then lending becomes political and you get something like China. Do we want our banks to be like Chinese banks where getting a loan is all about knowing the right politicians?
Now you can say that they are tone deaf to keep the plane but, honestly, if it isn’t the plane it will be something else. Do executives really need to stay in fancy hotels. Why not put them in Super 8s? Do they really need more than $50 per diems for food etc. Does anyone really need to make more than $5 million/year etc. There is no end to it.
Part of the problem with the whole corporate jet mentality is reflected in a smaller way through the use of blackberrys and similar devices.
“We have to get to LA quickly or the deal will be held up!! Time is money!! Off to the corporate jet!!”
Likewise, “I MUST answer this email or the deal will be held up!! Time is money!! Where’s my damn blackberry?!”
My point is this: Speeding up the time allocated to make business decisions has not served anyone well. I manage a small PE partnership and when I tell people that I may not get back to them for a couple of days on an issue because I’m traveling, they’re perplexed. And I tell them, “My answer to any decision/deal that MUST be made REALLY quickly is: No.” NOTHING except for illness or some other tragedy needs to be addressed immediately. Part of reason that folks have made such shitty decisions in recent years is because they’ve been convinced otherwise. It’s a big lie.
Basically, slow the fuck down, folks. If it’s business/finance, it ain’t THAT urgent. We somehow managed to make equally crappy decisions before blackberrys and corporate jets.
With the sword of Damocles hanging over them (nationlization) you would think that actions like this wouldn’t happen.
It appears they think the sword is going to fall anyway, or maybe it has and we haven’t been told. There is no transparency on these issues.
Anyway what is 50 million when you have a trillion in debt hanging over you.
And the fact that that practice continues at Citi when the company is on life support, under intense scrutiny, and its top brass should know better says how deeply ingrained this behavior has become
And after the Detroit 3 execs were completely pilloried over using private jets.
Do we want our banks to be like Chinese banks where getting a loan is all about knowing the right politicians?
You do realize that the slippery slope is a logical fallacy, don’t you?
Put all the senior Citi executives in that fligt, and let it land deep in the hudson or atlantic
these idiots are wasting all my tax money
obama, confiscate that jet
As always, the lickspittles are out in force to defend the arrogance of their masters.
However, this is not trivial. It is not just bad PR. It is the very root of the problem.
Economists are finally, finally beginning to recognize the naivete of their assumptions about “firms.” Firms do not act or make decisions. Senior executives do. And those executives today represent a separate, parasitical class with unique interests and incentives. Those incentives–looting for short-term gain, primarily–have led executives to make the very decisions, the hugely colossal mistakes, that led us to this crisis.
I am pleased to see the level of rage here. Let’s see more.
“Even though the bank’s stock is as cheap as a gallon of gas and it’s burning through a $45 billion taxpayer-funded rescue”
For a little perspective, the estimated cost to build an incredibly complex, an incredibly resource intensive, and an incredibly labor intensive machine, a Nimitz class “supercarrier” (aircraft carrier) is $4.5B.
If it’s hard to get your mind around what $45B actually means, it is equivalent to 10 Nimitz class supercarriers. It is actually a LOT of money!
“Even though the bank’s stock is as cheap as a gallon of gas and it’s burning through a $45 billion taxpayer-funded rescue”
For a little perspective, the estimated cost to build an incredibly complex, an incredibly resource intensive, and an incredibly labor intensive machine, a Nimitz class “supercarrier” (aircraft carrier) is $4.5B.
If it’s hard to get your mind around what $45B actually means, it is equivalent to 10 Nimitz class supercarriers. It is actually a LOT of money!
Another example of poor risk management. How could they let all of their top executives onto one plane? That is an awful lot of talent on only one plane. The net worth the jet would pale in comparison to the cargo.
They need at least two. They still haven’t figured out how to diversify.
Can these dolts really be that disconnected from reality. Could they really be that ignorant of public sentiment or do they really ……..just don’t a damn? Hang ’em all. Enough already!
Well, we the taxpayers need to treat the asses of those blue blooded executives with utmost dignity. After all, according to Paulson if we don’t we risk loosing a lot more. So suckers till the very end.
“Another example of poor risk management. How could they let all of their top executives onto one plane? That is an awful lot of talent on only one plane. The net worth the jet would pale in comparison to the cargo.
They need at least two. They still haven’t figured out how to diversify.”
Well, just the fact they are buying only one implies that they do not care about business, rather about pleasure. Bet you they will get the best escort service taxpayers money can buy.
ok, so it is perfectly obvious that Citicorp is an easy target, and more to the point did something that was morally indefensible. The question I keep wrestling with is why? Yves seems to imply that the execs are inured with some combination of entitlement or denial. I would guess the former, as these organizations are large enough to hire competent PR departments.
But I cannot seem to grock how the conversation went internally.
Finance: “I think any large expense needs to be justified in light of our current financial crisis”
executive: “It is normal and customary for executives of major companys not to travel commercial”.
Finance: “But given that we have older planes for sale, it would also be customary to tighten our belts and cancel”
executive: “so you are suggesting driving around in a used clunker?”
Finance: “I am trying to consider how it might look, maybe you should run this by PR”.
PR: “Given the cheap shots that the auto companies took over their private planes, you might want to keep this below the radar.”
Executive: “Are you comparing us to those losers? They deserved everything they got, and the congress wouldn’t dare do that us. They are as good as paid for.”
PR: “I don’t think congress is what you should worry about here, the electorate may get angry during the next trillion…”
Executive: “Don’t be stupid, the worse the economy gets, and further impaired our balance sheet, the more money we get. It was one thing to go after Fuld and Thain, but now we are talking about Citibank. “
PR: “ok, I will check off that we did a risk review and clear the transaction.”
Where will this Dassault Falcon 7X be going in a recession? Like, where’s the fire dudes?
This is our fault. Yup. We have empirical evidence that the CEO’s and managers of financial firms really, truly have no idea of what they are doing…yet, we give, subsidize, and “loan” these very same people money. No one is prosecuted, no one if fined, no one is fired (OK, 3? 4? after outrageous conduct), no bonuses are recinded due to non-performance, incompetance, or malfeasance, etcetera.
Insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result.
money is the common thread that weaves together the world. $money is a form of control and therefor he who makes and runs the money controls the world. theres absolutely no sense in the way that value works in this 21st century. hopefully the stupid masses will figure this out sooner than later and start a revolution. the poor verse the
rich. wwIII. plant a garden you fools befor the trucks stop dropping off food at the store. spend your dollars on somthing of use before you find that they’re worthless. a bullet now buys a big meal for you and your family, that you wont be able to afford in the future. i try to tell people this stuff and they think im crazy but heres the deal, ive got water food and shelter. my new currency is things of value to people in my community, tradable goods and services. the barter system is coming back faster than you can imagine as we are thrown back into the dark ages. the country will be the safest places in the future. ipods blackberries and fancy cars dont produce the same results for an individuals longterm future like weed wool and water do. im flush well fed and happy, and all i had to do was study a litlle for a coupla years. not your traditional 4 year bullshit degree thats really more of a business than an education. real study of history economics and real statistics. and a little theology is a great addition as it teaches not to chase golden gods. any ways, i could go on all day but i have to take care of the animals and split some wood. its a tough lifestyle at first but jeez i’m healthy strong and well fed and have become very fond of mother nature and the way that she has a way of periodically cleansing the world. all the way from the four seasons cycles to the ice age cycles. id rather fight the animals in the woods than the ones in the street. best of luck boys.
Citi’s New jet – nice
Where’s the uproar that $20M/yr of our tax money is going to pay for the naming right to the NY Mutts new stadium: Citi Field. The Mets are one of teh wealtiest teams in sports- surely the taxpayer shouldn’t be subsidizing them. Where’s the outrage?
The feeling I’m having right now is RAGE. This is completely indefensible when people are losing their jobs all over the country. This is OUR money goddamit! These bastards need to be in jail, not on a new jet.
weinerdog43
Look I am no fan of socialism, but the swedish model seemed to work. So just nationalize the damn things and stop this kind of silliness.
The supplier should be told to pound sand or hold on to the plane for another year if they have any hope of selling citi another one.
It isnt my tax mone, not being an american, but you guys are being taken for fools because you only want to get half pregnant. Citi should have been either, allowed to die, or taken over and the hous cleaned completely.
The second has the added advantage of proving that taking government money has a cost and truely should be done only as a last resort.
Most of the comments are missing a few critical points that need to be driven home over and over again.
1. It’s *really* not about the plane. Going from 2 old planes to one new one is definitely cheaper. I know this for a fact. The cost of maintenance alone makes it a smart deal. The FAA, to their credit, has quite detailed flight-time maintenance/replacement regulations. An older plane has *way* more maintenance costs. All of which are not even line items by themselves on the corporate budget. You are getting angry about pennies when the thieves have gotten away with *far* more.
2. Much like the flap about ML and BofA, this is all a diversion from the critical issues. The anger simply diverts the average person’s attention away from the probable lengthy list of corporate crimes.
3. There is, practically speaking, almost no criminal/regulatory investigations. Congress certainly won’t touch it. That’s what the average person should be focused on. Congress needs to dive deep into their businesses and the myriad of different ways regulations were sodomized. Gather facts! The take-away from this will be improved transparency and ideally the Fear of God in Corporate Officer circles.
Arguing the costs of jets and how “logical” it was to “downgrade” to one better jet–I reject it. They do not need any jets. Selling the two jets, let’s say they net 50 mil from that. OK, so there’s a non-refundable deposit on the other one. What’s that, 10% or $5 million. Now they have net $45 million. Go first class, you’ll be helping out our domestic airlines, which I’m sure are gagging for business. Heck, the oil-rich Hunts flew economy as a rule. Save even more by using Webex and/or video conferencing, that’s even faster than flying someplace. If they saved only $20 million net from these changes, that would translate into some $200 million of loans that could be heading out into the economy. Don’t think that wouldn’t make a difference?
Obama administration called citi execs about this problem and told them to “fix it.”
Story here.
Completely disgusting!!! Why can’t all those greedy corporate jet setters just choke on their pork and we could be done with them once and for all??
Get rid of the jets, idiots..and WALK!!
@Hu Fung: Spot on, couldn’t agree more. All these adornments like blackberry handsets and corp jets are much more about flashy style than any real substance. “I’m so *important* and *busy* that I *must* take this email *right now*” etc.
Frankly they are just used as a”badge” or status symbol – like the coded handshake of old – to identify themselves to one another, and to seek to differentiate themselves from the great unwashed masses who fly commercial or actually work for a living.
And while the bankers have been busy playing games of “dress ups”, “look at me” and “p*ssing contest”, the real economy has had the life sucked out of it through their greed and hubris.
I haven’t read all the comments on this one.
Isn’t the obvious answer to reduce their tax obligations, whether through loss carry-forwards or sale-lease/purchases of newer planes, which are kind of nice by the way.
Nothing wrong with reducing YOUR tax burden so as to increase THEIR tax burden, of course.
READ THE FINE PRINT:
“no intent to take delivery of NEW [my emphasis] aircraft”.
What that means is that they will retain full use of their existing fleet, which consist of 2 slightly older Falcon jets, a helicopter, etc.
2 Falcon Jets and a Helicopter on the taxpayer’s billions.
These financial fools are completely done for.
If it were just the housing devaluing about to
occur (2 => 5 times deduction) then there would be
something left of value.
But we SHOULD know that the derivatives mass
destruction which was an INEVITABLE event has
so buried these idiots (no sorry moral hazzard REMEMBER .. you stupid american tax payers).
The behaviour is that of the criminal grabbing
whatever assets they can deceive off of the senile senate and then doing a runner.
Look out for the disappearence of these players
in the next month.
Another update here.
Ain’t gonna happen now.
Citi has received closer to $350 billion in direct assistance, not $45 billion.