Meredith Whitney, the Oppenheimer & Co. bombshell who’s made a name for herself dropping plenty of the same, is back on message, contending that the bank’s turnaround plan is an “impossible feat.” That said, some think the firebrand analyst famed for calling Citi’s breathtaking losses before anyone else last autumn may be speaking a bit too soon.

Citigroup Inc. Chief Executive Officer Vikram Pandit faces an "impossible feat" in turning around the biggest U.S. bank as it faces "seismic" costs to restructure, Oppenheimer & Co. analyst Meredith Whitney said.

Citigroup will be forced to announce the sale of major businesses toward the end of this year or in early 2009, Whitney, who recommends investors sell the shares, said in a Bloomberg TV interview today. One of the units could be Banamex, the company's Mexican branch, she said.

Whitney, 38, correctly predicted on Oct. 31 that New York- based Citigroup would cut its dividend to shore up capital after mortgage-related writedowns. Pandit on May 9 outlined plans to sell $400 billion in assets at the bank, which has booked more than $40 billion of credit losses and writedowns since the subprime mortgage market collapsed last year.

"I think it's an impossible feat," Whitney said. "They don't have the revenue power, they don't have the earnings power in so many of their businesses. Even Stephen Hawking could not pull this off," she said, referring to the British physicist.

Whitney said she expects Citigroup, which lost a record $10 billion in the fourth quarter, to post "de minimis" profit during the next three to five years. She repeated her prediction that Pandit would be forced to lower the dividend again, and didn't give an estimate for restructuring costs. She estimated a loss this year of 45 cents a share.

Citigroup spokeswoman Christina Pretto declined to comment.

Share Performance

Shares of the company rose 1 cent to $23.64 at 4 p.m. in New York Stock Exchange composite trading. Citigroup has lost 20 percent this year.

Pandit's plan, which he presented at a Citigroup analyst and investor meeting, includes shedding $400 billion of assets during the next three years and cutting $15 billion in costs. He also forecast annual revenue growth of 9 percent.

"The presentation was glaringly light on actual mechanics, and run-rate earnings figures seemed to cherry pick revenue and credit scenarios from recent years," Whitney wrote in a note today. Pandit "set no delivery date as far as execution," she wrote.

Richard Bove, an analyst at Ladenburg Thalmann & Co., disagrees with Whitney on prospects for Citigroup.

"The turnaround has the potential to be so significant that it could carry this stock to multiples of its current price," Bove, who advises investors to buy the shares, wrote in a note today.

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