WaMu May Be Cut to “Junk”
July 24th, 2008Via: Reuters:
Washington Mutual Inc, the largest U.S. savings and loan, posted a $3.33 billion second-quarter loss on Tuesday as souring mortgages forced it to set aside more money for loan losses.
The thrift’s deteriorating health prompted Moody’s Investors Service to say it may downgrade Washington Mutual to “junk” status. Shares of Washington Mutual fell in after-hours electronic trading.
Washington Mutual said its third straight quarterly loss was $3.34 per share, more than triple the $1.09 per share loss that analysts on average expected according to Reuters Estimates. Year-ago profit was $830 million, or 92 cents per share.
The net loss was $6.58 per share including a one-time adjustment tied to the thrift’s $7.2 billion capital raising in April from private equity firm TPG Inc and other investors.
Seattle-based Washington Mutual said its retail banking, mortgage and credit card units all lost money in the quarter. The thrift set aside $5.91 billion for loan losses, and said net charge-offs totaled $2.17 billion.
It has been one of the hardest hit among the largest U.S. lenders in the nation’s housing and credit crisis.
“We are planning for continued softness in housing for the next several quarters,” Chief Executive Kerry Killinger said in an interview. “The capital that we have in place is sufficient to manage through this period. We have no plans at this point to raise additional capital.”
