June 19 (Bloomberg) -- HBOS Plc, the UK's biggest mortgage lender, said home prices will fall as much as 9 percent this year, more than it earlier forecast, and bad home loans rose 17 percent.
HBOS dropped as much as 6 percent in London trading today as the company prepares to sell 4 billion pounds ($7.8 billion) of shares in a rights offering next month. The Edinburgh-based bank wrote down 200 million pounds in the corporate investment unit, with half of that related to stakes in homebuilders, it said today in a statement.
``Their asset quality is deteriorating and the outlook shows no confidence,'' said Mamoun Tazi, a London-based analyst at MF Global Securities Ltd. who is ``neutral'' on the stock.
HBOS plans to shore up capital after Chief Executive Officer Andy Hornby announced asset write downs of almost 4 billion pounds since the credit crunch began a year ago. The bank's rights offer will follow a 12.3 billion-pound share sale by Royal Bank of Scotland Group Plc and an increase in missed mortgage payments that forced Bradford & Bingley Plc to cut the price of its rights offer by 33 percent.
HBOS dropped as much as 19.25 pence and traded down 4.3 percent to 305 pence at 8:30 a.m. in London. The shares are down 58 percent this year, more than twice as much as the eight-member FTSE All-Share Bank Index. Read more….
Source:
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=aoDlOmPbmESg&refer=home
