Capital race is on for banks

Wells Fargo and Morgan Stanley are finding stock sales to be a breeze. Those banks that wait, however, may find themselves in a more difficult spot.

EMAIL  |   PRINT  |   SHARE  |   RSS
 
google my aol my msn my yahoo! netvibes
Paste this link into your favorite RSS desktop reader
See all CNNMoney.com RSS FEEDS (close)
By David Ellis, CNNMoney.com staff writer

What percentage of new contributions to your retirement account is going into stocks?
  • Zero
  • Less than 25%
  • 25% - 75%
  • More than 75%
DID YOUR BANK FAIL?
  • For more information visit www.fdic.gov
  • Don’t panic – your savings are insured
  • Keep paying your loans – the terms remain the same.
  • The FDIC will notify you by mail about your accounts/loans.
  • Contact the FDIC with any questions until further notice
  • If your bank is purchased, you will be contacted by your new bank.

NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- The race to raise capital among banks has begun.

In the wake of the federal government's warning that the nation's largest financial institutions face an estimated $75 billion capital shortfall, banks are already scrambling to raise the necessary funds to keep regulators happy.

Some financial institutions, namely Morgan Stanley (MS, Fortune 500) and Wells Fargo (WFC, Fortune 500), hardly gave investors a chance to digest Thursday's results from the government's two-month-long "stress test" program before revealing plans to raise capital through the sale of common stock. Both firms quickly followed that up by pricing their offerings on Friday.

And there are signs that other leading institutions are already looking to follow suit.

Bank of America (BAC, Fortune 500), whose nearly $34 billion capital shortfall eclipsed that of any of the other 19 institutions tested, registered Friday to sell 1.25 billion shares, which the company estimates will raise nearly $11 billion. In a conference call with investors late Thursday, executives at the Charlotte, N.C.-based lender indicated that they planned to raise much of the $34 billion through new stock issuance.

Cleveland-based KeyCorp (KEY, Fortune 500) also unveiled plans Monday to offer up to $750 million in common stock, in sales from time to time, in order to fix its $1.8 billion capital shortfall.

And even those institutions that managed to ace their test are piling into the public markets, hoping to harness investors' newfound interest in bank stocks.

A trio of lenders including U.S. Bancorp (USB, Fortune 500), Capital One (COF, Fortune 500) and the Winston-Salem, N.C.-based BB&T (BBT, Fortune 500) all announced plans before Monday's opening bell to issue stock, saying they planned to use the proceeds to repay the preferred stock and warrants associated with the government's Troubled Asset Relief Program, or TARP.

As recently as a month ago, investors would have scoffed at the notion of a bank successfully issuing stock, given the variety of threats facing the industry. There were, of course, ongoing fears about the underlying assets of many U.S. financial institutions and the impact of the quickly sinking economy, as well as concerns about how much of the government's preferred stakes in various banks might be converted into common stock, which would effectively dilute existing shareholders.

Thursday's release of the official results of the government's stress-test program helped silence many of those fears, says Samuel Hayes, professor emeritus of investment banking at Harvard Business School.

Even as regulators estimated that losses for the group could reach $599 billion under a severe economic scenario, all of the 19 tested were deemed solvent and well-capitalized.

"Now that these issues have been settled, there is considerable interest by investors in establishing a position they don't have or increasing their position in those banks that are going to be the dominant forces," Hayes said.

A capital squeeze?

Renewed interest in U.S. financial institutions is hardly novel, as subsiding fears over the sector have made investors increasingly bullish on banks over the last two months. Since the end of March, the S&P Banking index, one of the closely watched gauges of the industry, is up 49%.

Without that recent run-up, many experts wonder whether banks would have been able to raise as much capital as they did. With both of their offerings oversubscribed, Morgan Stanley and Wells Fargo raised billions of dollars more than they had originally anticipated as part of Friday's stock sale.

Helping to grease the wheels was the fact that both firms issued shares at an 11% discount to where their stock ended in the previous session - a trend that may persist to keep investor interest in banks piqued, according to experts.

Of course, those institutions deemed in need by regulators as a result of the stress tests do not have to solely rely on stock sales. Banks may opt to raise capital by selling loans or securities through the government's Public-Private Investment Program (PPIP), entering joint ventures or selling business lines altogether. Bank of America said Thursday that it is actively shopping both its First Republic Bank and Columbia Management divisions.

If a bank is unable to raise capital on its own, it will have to turn to regulators for assistance, which many anticipate would mean converting the government's preferred stake into common stock.

"I'm not expecting a major problem for most banks in getting the [private] capital they need," said Fox-Pitt Kelton analyst Albert Savastano.

But with so many lenders rushing to issue stock all at once, there are those analysts who fear that banks that dither about their plans, including some of the regional lenders included in the test, may find investors quickly satiated.

Then again, it might just take one terrible quarterly performance or another painful turn in the economy for investors to sour again on the nation's banking industry.

"Those may be a harder sale," said Ben Holmes, head of Colorado-based research firm Morningnotes.com, which tracks both initial and secondary public offerings. To top of page

Features
They're hiring!These Fortune 100 employers have at least 350 openings each. What are they looking for in a new hire? More
If the Fortune 500 were a country...It would be the world's second-biggest economy. See how big companies' sales stack up against GDP over the past decade. More
Sponsored By:
More Galleries
10 of the most luxurious airline amenity kits When it comes to in-flight pampering, the amenity kits offered by these 10 airlines are the ultimate in luxury More
7 startups that want to improve your mental health From a text therapy platform to apps that push you reminders to breathe, these self-care startups offer help on a daily basis or in times of need. More
5 radical technologies that will change how you get to work From Uber's flying cars to the Hyperloop, these are some of the neatest transportation concepts in the works today. More
Sponsors
Worry about the hackers you don't know 
Crime syndicates and government organizations pose a much greater cyber threat than renegade hacker groups like Anonymous. Play
GE CEO: Bringing jobs back to the U.S. 
Jeff Immelt says the U.S. is a cost competitive market for advanced manufacturing and that GE is bringing jobs back from Mexico. Play
Hamster wheel and wedgie-powered transit 
Red Bull Creation challenges hackers and engineers to invent new modes of transportation. Play

Most stock quote data provided by BATS. Market indices are shown in real time, except for the DJIA, which is delayed by two minutes. All times are ET. Disclaimer. Morningstar: © 2018 Morningstar, Inc. All Rights Reserved. Factset: FactSet Research Systems Inc. 2018. All rights reserved. Chicago Mercantile Association: Certain market data is the property of Chicago Mercantile Exchange Inc. and its licensors. All rights reserved. Dow Jones: The Dow Jones branded indices are proprietary to and are calculated, distributed and marketed by DJI Opco, a subsidiary of S&P Dow Jones Indices LLC and have been licensed for use to S&P Opco, LLC and CNN. Standard & Poor's and S&P are registered trademarks of Standard & Poor's Financial Services LLC and Dow Jones is a registered trademark of Dow Jones Trademark Holdings LLC. All content of the Dow Jones branded indices © S&P Dow Jones Indices LLC 2018 and/or its affiliates.