Capital One Financial Corp.'s (COF) public offering of 24.4
million common shares priced at $51.65 each, a 1.3% discount to
Wednesday's close.
The bank said late Wednesday it planned to offer $1.25 billion
of common stock to help fund its acquisition of HSBC Holdings PLC's
(HBC, 0005.HK, HSBA.LN) U.S. credit-card operations. Capital One is
buying HSBC's U.S. credit-card business, which includes about $30
billion in loans, for $2.6 billion. The deal would make Capital One
one of the largest issuers of private-label credit cards.
The company, which transformed itself from a credit-card lender
to a bank just before the financial crisis, has benefited along
with many of its peers in recent months by an improvement in credit
quality. A stronger portfolio helped drive Capital One's profit
higher earlier in the year, though Capital One's fourth-quarter
profit fell a surprising 42% on higher provisions for losses on
loans.
Shares were recently trading 16 cents lower at $52.17.
-By Melodie Warner, Dow Jones Newswires; 212-416-2283;
melodie.warner@dowjones.com