Wells Fargo to Sell $10.4 Billion in Stock, Exit TARP

Dec. 14 (Bloomberg) -- Wells Fargo & Co., seeking to shake the stigma of government bailout funds and keep up with its rivals, plans to raise $10.4 billion in a share sale so it can get out of the Troubled Asset Relief Program.

The bank plans to return all of the $25 billion that taxpayers invested last year, according to a company statement issued today. The exit from TARP would put Wells Fargo on the same footing as Bank of America Corp., JPMorgan Chase & Co. and Citigroup Inc., its largest competitors, which have already paid back the U.S. or announced plans to do so.

“TARP stabilized our country’s financial system when confidence in financial markets around the world was being tested unlike any other period in our history,” Wells Fargo Chief Executive Officer John Stumpf said in the statement. “We’re ready to fully repay TARP in a way that serves the interests of the U.S. taxpayer, as well as our customers, team members and investors.”

The San Francisco-based bank ranks fourth by assets and deposits in the U.S. Stumpf vowed this year to pay off TARP in a “shareholder-friendly” way, without elaborating on how that might be accomplished or saying whether current investors would have their stakes diluted. The biggest holder is billionaire Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway Inc.

Wells Fargo rose 8 cents to $25.49 in New York Stock Exchange composite trading today. The shares have fallen about 14 percent this year.

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=a8dHOdktwWZ0&pos=1

You just have to believe your own lies than you can make every company "profitable". Never though that Warren B. would fall for "mark to imagination" rule change...