(Includes scrapping of prior stock offering, second-quarter loan and lease loss provision forecast)

   DOW JONES NEWSWIRES 
 

Marshall & Ilsley Corp. (MI) said Thursday that it plans a $400 million common stock offering, scrapping a previously announced $350 million effort which was intended to be sold directly into the market.

Most companies generally hold formal offerings in which all of the planned sale takes place at the same price. But some companies, including Bank of America Corp. (BAC), of late have opted instead to sell directly to investors at the prevailing market price. SunTrust Bank Inc. (STI) reversed course on how it would sell stock last week, opting against a direct-to-market sale.

A raft of financial and other companies have been taking advantage of investors' recent return to the market to either raise capital for purposes including pay back funding received from the Treasury's Troubled Asset Relief Program. The Treasury cleared 10 big banks earlier this week to repay a combined $68.3 billion.

M&I, Wisconsin's largest bank, got $1.7 billion in funding last year from the effort. Its shares were down 4.4% to $6.14 in recent trading as the $400 million stock sale would represent a near 25% dilution of current shareholders. The stock is down 55% this year, though it has more than doubled since hitting a 24-year low in March.

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

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

Separately Thursday, M&I said in a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission it expects its second-quarter provision for loan and lease losses to nearly be the same as the first quarter's $1.33 billion, with net charge-offs little changed sequentially. The first-quarter rate was 2.67% of average loans and leases.

-By Tess Stynes, Dow Jones Newswires; 201-938-2473; tess.stynes@dowjones.com