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Date: Nov 29, 2007
THE ARTICLECitigroup handed lifeline by Abu DhabiAn Abu Dhabi investment company has given a $7.5bn cash lifeline to the world’s biggest banking and finance company Citigroup. The monetary injection gave the government of Abu Dhabi a 4.9 percent stake in the ailing banking giant. The investment was vital for Citigroup, which has suffered huge losses recently due to the credit crisis in the USA and multi-billion-dollar losses in the US housing market. Citigroup said it needed the money to pay dividends to its shareholders. Shares in the company have lost 40 percent of their value in four months. To make matters worse, CEO Chuck Prince resigned earlier this month after four years at the helm. A successor has yet to be named. The Abu Dhabi deal immediately sparked a rally on Wall Street as traders took confidence in Citigroup’s boosted balance sheet. Some analysts have cast doubt on the wisdom of Citigroup’s move. The Abu Dhabi government will receive a huge, guaranteed 11 percent interest per year for the next three years for its investment. This rate of interest is higher than you would get even on the riskiest of junk bonds, which perhaps shows how desperate Citigroup was. The Abu Dhabi group’s managing director, Sheikh Ahmed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, believes Citigroup is in a unique position in the worldwide financial markets. He said: "We see in Citigroup a highly respected company with a premier brand and with tremendous opportunities for growth.” He added: “This investment reflects our confidence in Citigroup’s potential to build shareholder value." The deal in Citigroup is the latest in a string of high profile investments in global companies by UAE institutions. WARM-UPS1. BANKS: Walk around the class and talk to other students about banks. Change partners often. After you finish, sit with your original partner(s) and share what you found out. 2. CHAT: In pairs / groups, decide which of these topics or words from the article are most interesting and which are most boring.
Have a chat about the topics you liked. Change topics and partners frequently. 3. TWO-MINUTE MONEY DEBATES: Have the following fun 2-minute debates. Students A strongly believe in the first argument, students B the second. Change pairs often.
4. INVESTMENTS: With your partner(s), talk about which of these would be good investments if you had a few hundred million dollars to invest. Rate them from 10 (= excellent chance of good return on investment) to 1 (= very risky). ___ a major bank in India ___ a Chinese toy manufacturer ___ a Russian gas company ___ a US bank ___ an English football club ___ a Brazilian coffee grower ___ a Japanese camera maker ___ an international English school chain 5. CASH: Spend one minute writing down all of the different words you associate with the word ‘cash’. Share your words with your partner(s) and talk about them. Together, put the words into different categories. BEFORE READING / LISTENING1. TRUE / FALSE: Look at the article’s headline and guess whether these sentences are true (T) or false (F):
2. SYNONYM MATCH: Match the following synonyms from the article:
3. PHRASE MATCH: Match the following phrases from the article (sometimes more than one combination is possible):
WHILE READING / LISTENINGGAP FILL: Put the words into the gaps in the text.
LISTENING: Listen and fill in the spaces.An Abu Dhabi investment company has given _______________________ to the world’s biggest banking and finance company Citigroup. The monetary injection gave the government of Abu Dhabi a 4.9 percent _______________________ banking giant. The investment was vital for Citigroup, which has _______________________ due to the credit crisis in the USA and multi-billion-dollar losses in the US housing market. Citigroup said it needed the money _______________________ shareholders. Shares in the company have lost 40 percent of their value in four months. To make matters worse, CEO Chuck Prince resigned earlier this _______________________. A successor has yet to be named. The Abu Dhabi deal immediately _______________________ Wall Street as traders took confidence in Citigroup’s boosted balance sheet. Some analysts have _______________________ of Citigroup’s move. The Abu Dhabi government will receive a huge, guaranteed 11 percent interest per _______________________ for its investment. This rate of interest is higher than you would get even _______________________, which perhaps shows how desperate Citigroup was. The Abu Dhabi group’s managing director, Sheikh Ahmed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, believes Citigroup is in a _______________________ worldwide financial markets. He said: "We see in Citigroup a highly respected company with a premier brand and with tremendous _______________________.” He added: “This investment reflects our confidence in Citigroup’s potential to build shareholder value." The deal in Citigroup is the _______________________ high profile investments in global companies by UAE institutions. AFTER READING / LISTENING1. WORD SEARCH: Look in your dictionaries / computer to find collocates, other meanings, information, synonyms … for the words ‘life’ and ‘line’.
2. ARTICLE QUESTIONS: Look back at the article and write down some questions you would like to ask the class about the text.
3. GAP FILL: In pairs / groups, compare your answers to this exercise. Check your answers. Talk about the words from the activity. Were they new, interesting, worth learning…? 4. VOCABULARY: Circle any words you do not understand. In groups, pool unknown words and use dictionaries to find their meanings. 5. TEST EACH OTHER: Look at the words below. With your partner, try to recall exactly how these were used in the text:
STUDENT INVESTMENT SURVEYWrite five GOOD questions about investments in the table. Do this in pairs. Each student must write the questions on his / her own paper. When you have finished, interview other students. Write down their answers.
DISCUSSIONSTUDENT A’s QUESTIONS (Do not show these to student B)
-------------------------------------------------------------------- STUDENT B’s QUESTIONS (Do not show these to student A)
LANGUAGECORRECT WORD: Put the correct words from a–d below in the article. An Abu Dhabi investment company has given a $7.5bn (1) ____ lifeline to the world’s biggest banking and finance company Citigroup. The (2) ____ injection gave the government of Abu Dhabi a 4.9 percent (3) ____ in the ailing banking giant. The investment was vital for Citigroup, which has suffered huge losses recently (4) ____ to the credit crisis in the USA and multi-billion-dollar losses in the US housing market. Citigroup said it needed the money to pay dividends to its shareholders. Shares in the company have lost 40 percent of their value in four months. To make (5) ____ worse, CEO Chuck Prince resigned earlier this month after four years at the helm. A successor has yet to be named. The Abu Dhabi deal immediately sparked a (6) ____ on Wall Street as traders took confidence in Citigroup’s boosted balance sheet. Some analysts have (7) ____ doubt on the wisdom of Citigroup’s move. The Abu Dhabi government will receive a huge, guaranteed 11 percent interest per year for the next three years for its investment. This rate of interest is higher than you would get even on the riskiest (8) ____ junk bonds, which perhaps shows how desperate Citigroup was. The Abu Dhabi group’s managing director, Sheikh Ahmed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, believes Citigroup is (9) ____ a unique position in the worldwide financial markets. He said: "We see (10) ____ Citigroup a highly respected company with a premier brand and with tremendous opportunities for growth.” He added: “This investment reflects our confidence (11) ____ Citigroup’s potential to build shareholder value." The deal in Citigroup is the latest in a (12) ____ of high profile investments in global companies by UAE institutions.
WRITING:Write about investments for 10 minutes. Correct your partner’s paper. _______________________________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________________________ HOMEWORK1. VOCABULARY EXTENSION: Choose several of the words from the text. Use a dictionary or Google’s search field (or another search engine) to build up more associations / collocations of each word. 2. INTERNET: Search the Internet and find more information about UAE investments in global companies. Talk about what you discover with your partner(s) in the next lesson. 3. INVESTMENTS: Make a poster about the different things international investors can invest in. Show your poster to your classmates in the next lesson. Did you all include similar things? 4. MAGAZINE ARTICLE: Write a magazine article about the (imaginary) collapse of America’s financial markets and the effect it would have on the world. Include an imaginary interview with a homeless American ex-billionaire. Read what you wrote to your classmates in the next lesson. Write down new words and expressions. 5. LETTER: Write a letter to the next boss of Citigroup. Give him/her three suggestions on how to make banks better. Give three reasons why you could work for Citigroup as an executive. Read your letter to your partner(s) in your next lesson. Your partner(s) will answer your questions. ANSWERSTRUE / FALSE:
SYNONYM MATCH:
PHRASE MATCH:
GAP FILL: Citigroup handed lifeline by Abu DhabiAn Abu Dhabi investment company has given a $7.5bn cash lifeline to the world’s biggest banking and finance company Citigroup. The monetary injection gave the government of Abu Dhabi a 4.9 percent stake in the ailing banking giant. The investment was vital for Citigroup, which has suffered huge losses recently due to the credit crisis in the USA and multi-billion-dollar losses in the US housing market. Citigroup said it needed the money to pay dividends to its shareholders. Shares in the company have lost 40 percent of their value in four months. To make matters worse, CEO Chuck Prince resigned earlier this month after four years at the helm. A successor has yet to be named. The Abu Dhabi deal immediately sparked a rally on Wall Street as traders took confidence in Citigroup’s boosted balance sheet. Some analysts have cast doubt on the wisdom of Citigroup’s move. The Abu Dhabi government will receive a huge, guaranteed 11 percent interest per year for the next three years for its investment. This rate of interest is higher than you would get even on the riskiest of junk bonds, which perhaps shows how desperate Citigroup was. The Abu Dhabi group’s managing director, Sheikh Ahmed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, believes Citigroup is in a unique position in the worldwide financial markets. He said: "We see in Citigroup a highly respected company with a premier brand and with tremendous opportunities for growth.” He added: “This investment reflects our confidence in Citigroup’s potential to build shareholder value." The deal in Citigroup is the latest in a string of high profile investments in global companies by UAE institutions. LANGUAGE WORK
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