June 22 (Bloomberg) -- Citigroup Inc. Chief Executive Officer Vikram Pandit said he expects the bank’s biggest operation by revenue, Citicorp, to derive half its future business from emerging markets.

“When you look at all of Citicorp we are going to be half emerging markets,” he said today in a press conference in Sao Paulo, Brazil. “We will be the single largest emerging markets financial services company and the single biggest play on globalization.”

Pandit, 52, said in a speech in Detroit last week that Citigroup, the recipient of $45 billion in government funds, would look abroad for growth as the U.S. economy slows. The U.S. is taking a 34 percent stake in Citigroup after a record $28 billion loss last year.

Pandit reorganized the bank early this year to streamline the company and restore profits. Citicorp, with adjusted 2008 revenue of $59.8 billion, comprises branch banking, trading, investment banking and payment processing. Citi Holdings manages such businesses as CitiFinancial consumer-finance and Primerica insurance and generates revenue of about $32 billion.

“The credit-card portfolio we have in the U.S. and the mortgage portfolio we have in the U.S. are still challenging,” Pandit said. “So we are going to have to go through whatever the losses are likely to be on that and cover that with the income we are generating.”

Citigroup is focusing on overseas markets after the bank’s overdependence on U.S. consumers stoked its financial woes, Pandit said in the June 16 speech in Detroit. The bank has been hobbled by writedowns on subprime mortgage bonds and an increase in consumer-loan losses.

Brazil is Key

“There’s no question that with our focus on globalization and emerging markets that Brazil is a key, key part of that,” Pandit said today. “It’s our goal to keep growing Brazilian operations just as the Brazilian consumers are growing, just as the Brazilian industry is becoming more multinational.”

He said the consolidation in the Brazil’s financial industry “presents opportunities.”

Citigroup’s most senior executive in Asia, Ajay Banga, last week left the U.S. bank for a role at MasterCard Inc. that puts him in line to succeed Chief Executive Officer Robert Selander. Banga, 49, will become president and chief operating officer at MasterCard after 13 years at the U.S.-based bank.

To contact the reporter on this story: Telma Marotto in Sao Paulo at tmarotto1@bloomberg.net

Last Updated: June 22, 2009 17:48 EDT