Bank of America races to sell assets

NEWYORK: Bank of America Corp's push to shed assets and build its capital base isin high gear.

The largest US bank company is ridding itself ofinvestments and businesses it considers "noncore" in order to raise cash andlower the asset base that determines its regulatory capital requirements. Thedeals range from significant dispositions such as its $8.6 billion Canadiancredit card portfolio to more mundane divestitures, such as stock in a Pizza Hutfranchisee.

In late August, the company staved off investor fearsthat it would be forced into a dilutive equity offering by lassoing a $5 billioninvestment from Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway. But concerns linger becausethe bank continues to battle billions of dollars of losses relating toresidential mortgages and litigation, and faces tougher capital rules that willbe phased in beginning in 2013.

Bank of America has announced some$46 billion of asset sales since 2010, including about $11 billion from sheddingmoney management giant BlackRock , with the pace of dealsaccelerating in recent months.

The following have been announced, orreported to be on the block, since the start of this year:

February3: Sells Balboa insurance portfolio for more than $700 million to Australia'sQBE Insurance. The sale contributed to a $3 billion capital raise that was aprovision in its agreement to pay off US government bailoutaid.

April 2011: Sells its $200 million United Kingdom small-businessloan portfolio to Barclays PLC. Terms were not disclosed, and a bank spokesmandeclined to give a specific date for the transaction.

May 19:Announces sale of its remaining stake in BlackRock for about $2.5billion.

June 6: Sells a $1 billion credit card portfolio to RegionsFinancial Corp . The deal comprised about 500,000 accounts ofRegions customers that were serviced by Bank of America.

July 7:Sells Balboa Insurance's life insurance division to St. Paul, Minnesota-basedSecurian Financial Group Inc. Terms were not disclosed.

August 3:Sells a credit card business in Spain to Apollo Capital Management. Terms werenot disclosed.

August 5: Sells servicing rights on a pool of 400,000mortgages to Fannie Mae. The purchase price on the loans that had unpaidprincipal of $73 billion was more than $500 million, the Wall Street Journalreported.

August 15: Agreed to sell an $8.6 billion credit cardportfolio in Canada to TD Bank Group for an undisclosed amount,and announcement of the possible sale of card businesses in the U.K. andIreland.

August 25: Billionaire Warren Buffett's Berkshire HathawayInc buys $5 billion of preferred stock in a private offering.Berkshire also receives warrants to purchase up to 700 million common shares ofBank of America over the next decade at $7.14 per share.

August 29:Sells half of its stake in China Construction Bank for $8.3billion.

September 15: Sells 80.8 million shares in hospital operatorHCA Holdings Inc back to the company for about $1.5 billion. The bank hasreceived roughly $3 billion in proceeds from the original $1 billion thatMerrill Lynch & Co investment made in 2006. Bank of America bought MerrillLynch (and its almost half-interest in BlackRock, in early2009).

September 22: Reuters reports bank's plan to sell almost $1billion of performing and delinquent commercial real estate loans to an investorgroup including Invesco Ltd and Square Mile Capital Management.The loans are tied to 32 properties.

September 22: Bloomberg reportsbank's planned sale of a stake in NPC International, which operates the biggestPizza Hut franchise in the United States, for more than $800 million.