Citigroup Inc. (C) disclosed Thursday that its valuation of the Morgan Stanley Smith Barney brokerage is substantially above Morgan Stanley's appraisal, the first public jostling between the partners on price. Morgan Stanley owns 51% of the joint venture, but has submitted a bid to buy another 14%. Both companies submitted valuations to one another on Monday, and Citi disclosed Thursday in a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission that the two appraisals are 60% apart. Since the joint venture was formed in 2009, Citi had carried the value of its 49% of Morgan Stanley Smith Barney at $11 billion on its books--implying a value of $22 billion for the joint venture. It said in the filing Thursday that its valuation now "slightly exceeded" the carrying value. Morgan Stanley's valuation came in at about 40% of Citi's $22 billion carrying value, implying that Morgan Stanley values the joint venture at about $9 billion. Subsequently, Citi might have "a significant non-cash GAAP charge to net income in the third quarter," the bank said in its filing. Write to Matthias Rieker at matthias.rieker@dowjones.com Subscribe to WSJ: http://online.wsj.com?mod=djnwires
