Cough cough....yeah we need another $8.5B.
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=a.qIMphkb5cA&refer=home
Merrill Has $5.7 Billion of Writedowns, Sells Shares (Update1)
By Bradley Keoun and Christine Harper
July 28 (Bloomberg) -- Merrill Lynch & Co. said it will record $5.7 billion of pretax writedowns in the third quarter because of additional losses on the sale of collateralized debt obligations and hedging contracts with bond-insurers including XL Capital Assurance.
The New York-based firm said today in a statement that it plans to raise $8.5 billion by selling shares in a public offering. Temasek Holdings, the Singaporean government investment fund that already is one of Merrill's biggest investors, will buy $3.4 billion of stock in the offering, Merrill said.
Merrill Chief Executive Officer John Thain is pushing to rid the firm of its CDOs, which have contributed the majority of $18.7 billion of net losses reported over the past four quarters. Thain has had to raise capital to stave off credit- ratings downgrades and satisfy regulators that the firm can withstand losses.
``It does mark an attempt at curing the problem but at a tremendous cost to existing shareholders,'' said Charles Peabody, an analyst at Portales Partners LLC in New York who recommends selling the shares. ``You're going to raise $8.5 billion in capital. How can you be pleased by that? It's a necessity.''
Merrill said it sold $30.6 billion of CDOs to an affiliate of the Dallas-based investment firm Lone Star Funds, resulting in a pretax writedown of $4.4 billion. Merrill will provide financing for about 75 percent of the purchase price, according to the statement.
Merrill has lost almost 55 percent of its market value this year. The shares fell 12 percent in New York Stock Exchange composite trading today.