Wachovia raises capital, slashes dividend

Wachovia Corp. surprised investors Monday by saying it had raised $7 billion in new capital and slashed its dividend. The nation's fourth-largest bank is shackled with billions of dollars in troubled adjustable-rate mortgages from its 2006 acquisition of a California savings and loan.

Also Monday, struggling lender Fremont General Corp. in Brea said it would sell its retail operations, including 22 bank branch offices in California and $5.6 billion in deposits, to CapitalSource Inc. of Chevy Chase, Md.

The New York Stock Exchange suspended trading of Fremont shares and moved to delist the company, once the nation's fifth-largest providers of home loans to those with poor or little credit. The NYSE noted that Fremont had fallen below Big Board listing standards into penny-stock territory, with its stock trading at less than $1 for more than 30 consecutive days.

Wachovia's actions came as it reported a first-quarter loss of $393 million, a major disappointment to industry analysts who were expecting a profit of about $900 million. The Charlotte, N.C., company also set aside $2.8 billion for anticipated loan losses, a move that some experts said would probably be repeated in coming quarters.

"You're still left wondering how much more there is to come," said analyst Donn Vickrey of Gradient Analytics in Scottsdale, Ariz. He said that rate of nonperforming loans at Wachovia was "still accelerating."

Wachovia's dismal earnings report weighed on other banking stocks Monday and helped drag the major indexes slightly into negative territory. The Dow Jones industrial average fell 23.36 points to 12,302.06. Wachovia shares sank $2.26, or 8%, to $25.55, near their lowest level since 2000.

Much of Wachovia's trouble stems from so-called option ARMs acquired in the bank's purchase of Oakland-based Golden West Financial Corp. Under the leadership of industry legends Herb and Marion Sandler, Golden West pioneered mortgages -- marketed under the name Pick-a-Pay -- that allowed borrowers to choose their own payment options, including paying less than current principal and interest.

When Wachovia acquired Golden West, nearly all of the savings and loan's mortgages were option ARMs. The loans now account for $121 billion of Wachovia's $170 billion of mortgages, the company said. More than two-thirds of the loans were made in California and Florida, two of the states hardest hit by the continuing mortgage crisis.