In the United States, CITIGROUP (assets of $791 bn with a stock market capitalization of $260 bn) has announced the purchase of the American financial services company ASSOCIATES FIRST CAPITAL through a transaction in the form of a share swap estimated at $31.1 bn. Each ASSOCIATES FIRST CAPITAL share (stock market capitalization of $20 bn, with managed assets of $100 bn through 2,750 branches) will be exchanged for 0.7334 CITIGROUP shares. At the end of the transaction, ASSOCIATES FIRST...