First Republic shares fall as private placement report stirs fresh liquidity fears

Kitco Media
By Reuters
Published:
Updated:
Reuters

March 20 (Reuters) - Shares of First Republic Bank (FRC.N) slumped 16% on Monday, leading losses among U.S. lenders in premarket trading, after a report the regional bank could raise more money fanned worries about its liquidity despite a $30 billion rescue last week.

S&P Global downgraded the bank deeper into junk status on Sunday and said the recent cash infusion from 11 large U.S. banks may not solve its liquidity problems.

Shares of the banks involved in the unprecedented support also fell. JPMorgan Chase & Co (JPM.N), Citigroup Inc (C.N), Bank of America Corp (BAC.N) were down between 0.6% and 1.5%.

Global bank stocks and bonds also came under pressure after UBS Group sealed a state-backed takeover of troubled peer Credit Suisse Group AG. The deal involved a hit to some Credit Suisse bondholders.

San Francisco-based First Republic is in talks to raise capital from other banks or private equity firms by issuing new shares and could also negotiate a deal to be sold, the New York Times reported late on Friday.

On Sunday, Reuters reported that the lender was still trying to put together a capital raise but that no deal was imminent.

First Republic's shares have lost 80% of their value over the past seven sessions.

Other regional lenders largely bucked the trend. PacWest Bankcorp (PACW.O) climbed 5.9% after the bank said deposit outflows had stabilized and its available cash exceeded total uninsured deposits.

Truist Financial Corp (TFC.N) and KeyCorp (KEY.N) were flat to higher before the bell.

Reporting by Medha Singh in Bengaluru; Editing by Sriraj Kalluvila
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