Merrill Lynch plans to issue new shares worth about $8.5 bln - MarketWatch

for the love of god STFU

dumberthanyou, I know that you can't handle the fact that real estate is about to crash, but no need to be nasty, even if only in acronyms.

Remember malraux's idiot's thread - I can point you in the direction if you want. Now that it's happening (albeit 6 months late), nobody on the other side wants to hear the news. It was fine to write happy (if fantastical) stories about ever-rising real estate prices, but now that it is apparent that they were high on nitrous oxide, you don't want to know.

Sorry for you.

oh my lord.... this is huge. Nobody wants the stock, so they're giving it to employees instead of PAYING THEM. Yes, that will be awesome for NYC real estate...

BULLETIN MERRILL LYNCH SETS $8.5 BILLION STOCK SALE IN BROAD CAPITAL REALIGNMENT
Merrill to raise $8.5 bln selling new common stock
By Alistair Barr

MER 24.33, -3.19, -11.6%) said late Monday that it plans to raise $8.5 billion selling new common stock as the brokerage firm tries to bolster its capital position. Singapore's Temasek Holdings has agreed to buy $3.4 billion of the new shares, Merrill added. The firm also said it sold a big chunk of its U.S. super senior asset-backed security collateralized debt obligations, cutting its exposure in this area by $11.1 billion compared to the end of June. Merrill shares fell 5.7% to $22.94 during after-hours trading on Monday.

http://www.marketwatch.com/News/Story/Story.aspx?guid={60F1B958-15CD-49B8-A2DC-DFEC9A5C6982}&siteid=mktw

Just weeks after saying that everything was hunky-dory. Not too much credibility left, is there?

Apparently they have NO CLUE what's on their balance sheets, or off.

The bull logo no longer applies.

It does if you add sh*t after it.

Merrill Has $5.7 Billion of Writedowns, Sells Shares

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.

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=a.qIMphkb5cA&refer=home

Realize, if you will for a moment, that whatever price those CDO's were sold at is the price that Merrill's competitors who hold similar instruments will be forced to mark them to.

Here come the losses....

Wait a second, MER is financing the deal? That practically puts the risk right back onto MER! And Lone Star is guaranteeing this debt?

Lie, after lie, after lie. Pay attention to press releases and read between the lines. Nothing like we have ever seen. Global banking debacle, which will cripple the worlds economy for years. It was a pyramid scheme of mega proportions. Several month's ago I was mocked for saying people will go to jail over this mess and today the wheels of justice are just beginning to spin.

This was not simply bad business, it was a premeditated white collar crime, with the American Tax payer being the victim.

Streakeasy - most of the banks offloading their toxic debt at significant discounts have done so by financing the purchases (see Deutsche, among others). So if they finance 75% of the sale of their own CDOs at some discount to a third party, they take an immediate hit on the sale (the discount) but have less ongoing exposure to the CDOs to the extent the third party puts up 25% equity. But, yes, they are still exposed.

Another takeaway is that MER has been forced to raise equity equivalent to 25% (!!!) of its post-money equity value. The dilution is absolutely staggering. This is also assuming MER will sell its stake in Bloomberg. So.... whither Lehman? If MER is taking this kind of aggressive action, does this mean LEH needs to issue equity equal to 30, 40, 50% of its market cap? Are we talking about a change of control?

No idea, but I'm looking forward to reading news about LEH in the near future.

MERRILL LYNCH RAISING $8.5bn.

Bad news = bad real estate.

I don't own, so I will tell you about bad news.

Hope you feel bad.

-- stevejhx, dco, EdithWilson

Three letters for you - SKF Financials are going way below.

"I don't own, so I will tell you about bad news."

Actually, I do own. So nanny, nanny boo-boo on you.

A summer place in Fire Island isn't the same as owning your NYC residence. You are a renter steve.

"A summer place in Fire Island isn't the same as owning your NYC residence."

This from a man who "owns" in Long Island City. I, son, live in Manhattan.

Is stevejhx a father?

Of two cats.

Steve--I must have missed it, but Mike the weather dude at Fox Five, you say, is a gauy guy?

Uhm, yup.

> You are a renter steve.

About as nice a compliment as you can make in a real estate crash, no?