Tuesday, November 11, 2008

Wells Fargo set to buy Wachovia

US bank Wells Fargo said Monday it had raised 12.6 billion dollars in a stock offering in preparation for its acquisition of rival bank Wachovia.

The bank offered 407.5 million shares and sold an additional 61 million shares due to demand.Wells Fargo, which needs financing to buy Wachovia, fixed the share offering at 27 dollars in early November, a modest discount to its share price at the time of 28.77 dollars.

"The enthusiastic response to this offering in a very difficult market demonstrates broad investor confidence in Wells Fargo's long-term growth potential and our time-tested vision and diversified business model," said Wells Fargo's chief financial officer Howard Atkins.

Wells Fargo also has received 25 billion dollars from the US Treasury as part of the Treasury's 700 billion dollar bailout of the troubled financial sector.

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