Wells Fargo, the biggest bank on the US west coast, said Wednesday it would issue 10 billion dollars in stock to help pay for the takeover of Wachovia Corp.
Wells Fargo triumphed in a bitter takeover struggle against Citigroup weeks ago to acquire the troubled Wachovia - a takeover that came amidst massive turmoil and bankruptcies in the finance industry, dpa reported.
Wachovia was decimated by the rapid devaluation of mortgage securities that has followed a wave of more than 3 million home foreclosures and that is at the heart of the financial crisis.
The 10 billion dollars in stock offerings was only half as much as Wells Fargo originally said it would need to raise for the Wachovia takeover.
The US Department of the Treasury has since said it would buy 25 billion dollars of Wells Fargo's preferred shares as part of its rescue of the banking industry, Bloomberg financial news service reported.