NEW YORK (Reuters) - Citigroup Inc won a court order late on Saturday blocking Wachovia Corp from selling itself to another bank for at least a week, a day after Wachovia said it was backing out of a deal with Citi and was instead selling its assets to Wells Fargo & Co..
Citigroup said it received emergency injunctive relief from a New York state judge to extend its exclusivity agreement with Wachovia until at least Friday October 10, when the two banks must appear before a judge.
The order means that if Wells Fargo goes through with its plans to buy Wachovia for about $15 billion, it will be held in contempt of court and could face significant damages.
Citigroup said on Monday it had reached a preliminary agreement to buy Wachovia's banking assets for $2.2 billion in a government-backed deal. Wachovia signed an agreement, set to expire on Monday October 6, to only negotiate with Citigroup.
On Friday, Wells Fargo said it had signed an agreement to buy the whole of Wachovia, including its asset management unit and retail brokerage, for about $15 billion.
Citigroup said on Friday that the Wells Fargo deal was a violation of Wachovia's agreement to negotiate exclusively with Citi. That agreement also prevented Wachovia from signing merger agreements with other banks.
(Reporting by Dan Wilchins, editing by Anthony Boadle)
