Marshall & Ilsley Plans $400 Million Stock Offering; Shares Down

   DOW JONES NEWSWIRES 
 

Marshall & Ilsley Corp. (MI) plans a $400 million common stock offering, the latest capital-raising move by Wisconsin's largest bank, which has been considering repaying funding it received from the Treasury's Troubled Asset Relief Program.

It wasn't immediately clear whether the offering was in place of or in addition to the $350 million in stock the company said last month it planned to sell directly into the market. A company spokesman wasn't available.

A raft of financial and other companies have been taking advantage of investors' recent return to the market to either raise capital or pay back TARP funds. M&I got $1.7 billion in funding last year from the effort and the Treasury cleared 10 big banks earlier this week to repay a combined $68.3 billion.

Shares of Marshall & Ilsley recently were down 4.4% at $6.14 in premarket trading as the $400 million stock sale would represent a near 25% dilution of current shareholders. The stock has lost nearly 80% of its value since September, though it has more than doubled since hitting a 24-year low in March.

The company plans to use the estimated proceeds of $384 million for general corporate purposes or give a portion to its units to use for their corporate purposes. But putting it toward TARP repayment is also a possibility.

M&I has struggled with heavy exposure to some of the most troubled housing markets and with its large exposures to commercial construction loans and its credit ratings have suffered as a result.

-By Tess Stynes, Dow Jones Newswires; 201-938-2473; [e-mail]