Wells Fargo Plans $10 Billion Offering

Wells Fargo (WFC) said late Wednesday that it plans to issue a $10 billion worth of common stock, half the amount it said it would do a month ago.

Wells said in early October, when it agreed to acquire Wachovia (WB), that it would issue up to $20 billion in common stock. But a week later, the Treasury Department took a $25 billion preferred equity stake in the bank as part of a $250 billion program to shore up confidence in the reeling banking system. The capital, invested through the Troubled Asset Relief Program, or TARP, counts towards banks' Tier-1 capital.

JPMorgan Securities, a unit of JPMorgan Chase (JPM) is acting as the global coordinator for the offering. Goldman Sachs (GS), Morgan Stanley (MS), UBS (UBS) and Wachovia Securities are joint bookrunners.

Wells Fargo shares fell 9% on Wednesday but regained some ground after the market closed. The stock was most recently down 3.5%.

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