PARIS -- Citicorp chairman John Reed said at a news conference here that he expected his company's 1993 earnings to be at least $1.5 billion.
That implies, he said, that the largest bank company in the United States will earn about the same operating income in the second half of the year as in the first half.
Citicorp netted $1.1 billion in the first six months, but about $300 million of that resulted from an accounting change, Mr. Reed noted.
He said the company previously had targeted full-year 1993 earnings of $1.5 billion, but affirmed: "We will certainly be stronger than that."
In 1992, the company earned $722 million, reversing a $457 million loss the preceding year.
Mr. Reed also said he expected the company's Tier 1 capital ratio to keep growing. "We're continuing to build capital, as earnings are coming back," he said.
Turning to expenses, Mr. Reed vowed to continue cutting jobs despite an 8% staff cut over the past two years. He predicted the number of U.S. workers would drop by 2% annually.
[In afternoon trading on Wednesday, Citicorp's stock was up 12.5 cents at $38 a share.]
Turning to general economic matters, Mr. Reed said he was relatively optimistic despite signs that the worldwide economy was only sputtering back to health.
Mr. Reed was in Paris to announce an expansion of Citicorp's retail branches in France. The company said it expected to increase its French customers to about 9,000 from 6,000 basing its projections on the introduction of 24-hour banking services and other improvements.
