Citigroup claims it won court order on Wachovia

New York: Citigroup Inc said it has won a court order blocking Wells Fargo & Co from buying hobbled US bank Wachovia Corp until the court rules otherwise.

Citigroup, which planned to buy Wachovia's banking assets for $2.2 billion (Dh8 billion), said New York State Supreme Court Justice Charles Ramos late on Saturday granted an injunction extending Wachovia's agreement to negotiate exclusively with Citigroup.

Citigroup and Wells Fargo are battling for control of sixth-largest US bank Wachovia, which has been hit hard by bad mortgages amid turmoil in global credit markets, but has a large network of branches.

Citigroup, the largest US bank, announced on Sep-tember 29 it had agreed to buy Wachovia's banking operations in a deal backed by the US Government. That deal did not include a signed merger agreement, but Wachovia did sign an agreement to only negotiate with Citigroup through today.

On Friday, however, Wells Fargo said it had signed an agreement to buy the whole of Wach-ovia, including its asset management unit and retail brokerage, for about $15 billion, roughly seven times more.

Wachovia said early last morning that it believes its agreement with Wells Fargo is valid and proper, and is best for shareholders, employees and US taxpayers.