Goldman Sachs says Citigroup may write down $9 bln

(Reuters) - Citigroup (C.N) may incur second-quarter write-downs of $9 billion (4.5 billion pounds) and raise additional capital, said a Goldman Sachs analyst, who widened his loss estimate for the bank for the period.

Goldman's William Tanona said he now assumes Merrill Lynch MER.N will incur $4.2 billion of write-downs in the second quarter. He widened his quarterly loss estimate on the world's largest brokerage to $2 a share from $0.25.

The analyst, who also added Citigroup to the Americas conviction sell list, expects the bank to post a loss of 75 cents a share for the quarter, compared with his prior forecast of a loss of 25 cents.

"We see multiple headwinds for Citigroup including additional write-downs, higher consumer provisions as a result of rapidly deteriorating consumer credit trends, and the potential for additional capital raises, dividend cuts, or asset sales," Tanona said.

(Reporting by Neha Singh in Bangalore; Editing by Vinu Pilakkott)