China and Prince Alwaleed to invest in Citigroup

Alwaleed, who has owned his Citi stake since the early 1990s and helped engineer a previous rescue plan for the bank more than a dozen years ago, is likely to keep his total stake in the bank below 5 percent to avoid regulatory scrutiny, the newspaper said.

In addition, the China Development Bank is expected to invest $2 billion in Citigroup, the newspaper reported, adding other investors could inject additional capital.

Altogether, the bank is hoping to raise $8 billion to $10 billion from a number of investors, including the Chinese bank and Alwaleed, the newspaper said.

In November, Citi accepted $7.5 billion in new capital from The Abu Dhabi Investment Authority only weeks after its former chief executive officer, Charles Prince, was forced out amid news of the heavy losses related to bad bets on mortgage securities and an ailing housing markets.

Citigroup spokeswoman Shannon Bell declined to comment.