NEW YORK, April 8 (Reuters) - Citigroup Inc (C.N: Quote, Profile, Research) is close to selling about $12 billion of leveraged loans and bonds to a group of private equity firms, the Wall Street Journal said in its online edition on Tuesday, citing people familiar with the matter.

The sale would be to private equity firms including Apollo Group, Blackstone Group LP (BX.N: Quote, Profile, Research) and TPG, and could be made final by the time the largest U.S. bank reports first-quarter results on April 18, the newspaper said.

Citigroup would sell the debt for an average price slightly below 90 cents on the dollar, the newspaper said, citing the people.

Citigroup has said it ended the year with about $43 billion of leveraged loan exposure.

Shares of Citigroup rose $1.02 to $24.78 in after-hours electronic trading. They had fallen 84 cents during the day. (Reporting by Jonathan Stempel; Editing by Tim Dobbyn)