Chicago, IL – December 10, 2009 – Zacks.com announces the list of stocks featured in the Analyst Blog. Every day the Zacks Equity Research analysts discuss the latest news and events impacting stocks and the financial markets. Stocks recently featured in the blog include: Citigroup Inc. (C), Bank of America Corp. (BAC), Wells Fargo & Co. (WFC), Ford Motor Co. (F) and Tata Motors (TTM).

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Here are highlights from Wednesday’s Analyst Blog:

Citi Seeks to Repay TARP Fund

Citigroup Inc. (C) is desperately seeking the approval of the U.S. Treasury Department and regulators to repay the bailout money it has received from the government for its participation in the Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP) at the height of the credit crisis last year.

Last week, Bank of America Corp. (BAC) had won an approval to pay back $45 billion of the TARP fund. This has increased the pressure on Citigroup and Wells Fargo & Co. (WFC) both of which have also received significant amount of TARP fund.

Citigroup had received $45 billion of TARP funds last year. Later, around $25 billion of that was converted into common stock that represented around 34% of its stake which is held by taxpayers. Citigroup has remaining $20 billion in TARP fund to repay. The repayment of the TARP fund will free the bank from government involvement in its affairs and pay restrictions.

Ford Gets Swedish Suitor for Volvo

Ford Motor Co. (F) has received a third bid for its Volvo unit from a Swedish consortium, Konsortium Jakob AB. The consortium has been formed on an initiative from the engineers' trade union at Volvo cars. The consortium has posed a challenge to Chinese carmaker Zhejiang Geely Holding Group, the foremost bidder for Volvo, by submitting a cash bid to Ford.

Last week, Ford has received another bid from Crown consortium, a group led by former Ford executives, for its Volvo unit. This consortium is led by Ford’s former director, Michael Dingman, and former executive of both Ford and Chrysler, Shamel Rushwin.

In 1999, Ford had acquired the Volvo Car Corporation from Sweden-based Volvo Group for $6.45 billion. However, the company put up the unit for sale in December last year in an effort to cut costs and raise cash amidst plunging industry-wide auto sales. The company is struggling to sell the loss-making unit by the end of the year.

Ford had discussions with many automakers for the sale, including Renault SA, China’s third-largest automaker, Dongfeng Motor Group and fifth-largest automaker Beijing Automotive Industry Holding Corp (BAIC). So far, Geely Automotive has submitted the only concrete bid for the unit. Media reports have disclosed that Geely valued the unit at close to $2 billion.

In the first half of 2008, Ford sold its U.K.-based Jaguar and Land Rover brands to the Indian auto giant Tata Motors (TTM). The company sold the unit for $2.3 billion, about half the price it had purchased from BMW in 2000.

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