E-trade Financial Corp. (ETFC) recently announced a public offering of 435 million shares of common stock at $1.10 per share, adding to their prior 573 million shares outstanding. The online brokerage and bank is looking to raise capital to save itself from mortgage-related loan losses. The money from the stock offering will help E-Trade lower its debt and stop any other losses.
A Chicago hedge fund Citadel Investment Group LLC affiliate bought 90.9 million additional shares in the offering, which they now have an approximately 17% stake, making them E-Trade’s largest stock and bondholder. Citadel’s founder and chief executive, Kenneth Griffin, joined E-Trade’s board of directors just last week.
E-Trade plans to raise $400 million through the common stock offering, a move that will reduce the value of existing shares. They also plan to exchange more than $1 billion in outstanding debt to help strength its capital position. This debt exchange will allow E-Trade to lower its debt by eliminating the interest payments that are tied to it. Citadel will exchange as least $800 million in debt as part of the plan as well.
How has this affected E-Trade’s stock performance? Since the beginning of the week, E-Trade’s stock has fallen and is currently trading at $1.22, which is nearly 15% down from Thursday’s close at $1.43.
