VENTURE CAPITAL POST

Web hosting company GoDaddy Inc's initial public offering is expected to value the company at up to $2.87 billion and comes at a time when there has been a steep fall in the number of companies going public in the United States.

Bankers running the expected A$3 billion ($2.29 billion) initial public offering of Australian software firm MYOB Ltd, owned by Bain Capital, plan to file a prospectus for the sale by end-March, two people familiar with the matter told Reuters.

Big U.S. banks, including JPMorgan Chase & Co (JPM.N) and Citigroup Inc (C.N), are expected to win Federal Reserve backing on Wednesday to buy back more shares and increase their dividends in the coming year, but the approvals may be as much about the institutions’ financial engineering as any improvement in their health.

The largest U.S. banks and their foreign rivals are facing a tough two-step check-up of their financial health by the Federal Reserve, forcing the firms to get a far better grip on how they measure risk.

Citigroup Inc had at least one advantage in its successful bid for the exclusive right to issue credit cards for Costco Wholesale Corp, rivals and tax specialists say: it lost so much money during the financial crisis that it has billions of dollars of tax credits.

Warehouse club Costco Wholesale Corp (COST.O) has chosen Citigroup Inc (C.N) and Visa Inc (V.N) to run its co-branded credit card starting next year, replacing American Express Co (AXP.N), which lost the coveted tie-up last month.

Big U.S. banks say that a proposed Federal Reserve rule on higher capital requirements would penalize them if the dollar remains strong against the euro, as it would make their dollar-denominated assets and operations look larger relative to their European peers, the Wall Street Journal reported.

Mashreq, Dubai's third-biggest lender by assets, is interested in acquiring Citigroup's Egyptian retail business, Mashreq's chief executive said on Sunday.

Citigroup has received 10 bids for its consumer banking business in Egypt, three sources with knowledge of the matter said on Tuesday, with banks from the United Arab Emirates prominent among potential purchasers.

Investors had hoped that the biggest U.S. banks would boost dividend payments substantially in 2015, but recent events including slumping oil prices will make it harder for banks to pay out more.

Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corp (SMBC) will buy Citigroup Inc's (C.N) Japanese retail banking operations in October for about 40 billion yen ($330 million), people with knowledge of the matter said on Wednesday.

Five years after President Barack Obama slammed Wall Street "fat cat" bankers, some of the nation's biggest banks this week successfully lobbied Congress to roll back a hotly debated provision in the 2010 Dodd-Frank financial reform law.

The U.S. Senate on Friday struggled to pass a $1.1 trillion spending bill that would avert a looming federal government shutdown, postponing a vote until Monday when procedural hurdles begin to evaporate.

Sumitomo Mitsui Financial Group Inc (8316.T) will announce as soon as next week that it will buy Citigroup Inc's (C.N) Japanese consumer banking business, Bloomberg reported, citing people with knowledge of the matter.

Apple Inc (AAPL.O) is embarking on its most aggressive expansion yet onto corporate turf, hiring a dedicated sales force to talk with potential clients like Citigroup Inc (C.N) and working in concert with a dozen or so developers, two sources familiar with its plans say.