Financial Landscape: Writedowns, Losses and Capital Raised

Amid all the financial chaos, I thought it would be a good idea to post up a simple chart breaking down the financial landscape in terms of writedowns, losses, and capital raised. From Bloomberg, you'll see how institutions are looking in terms of raw numbers: writedowns/losses versus capital raised.

There is one institution in particular that I want to point out: HSBC (HBC). It has $27.4 billion in writedowns and losses, but has only raised $3.9 billion. It, by far, has one of the more lopsided ratios. Now, we obviously know that this simple chart does not tell the whole story, but I thought it was worth highlighting.

click to enlarge

Disclosure: None

Comments

[helplessobs...:]

Two fin companies not on your list, BBT and BRK. Smart investors soar with the eagles and avoid being the road kill. Sounds like HSBC will soon be spotted on the highway.

2008 Sep 17 06:51 AM

[thannagan:]

It's also interesting that RBS and Barclays have riased substantially more new capital than the amount of assets they have written down. Does this mean they were just greatly under-capitalized before, or that there's a lot more write-offs on the way.

2008 Sep 17 10:18 PM

[GMD:]

Anybody think the RBS preferreds are a good opportunity ? Would love some insite .

2008 Sep 18 10:46 AM

[maryanne:]

I would think so, RBS preferreds are going for less than half of par value AGAIN. sold one at $15 going down on monday, brought it back at $10 tuesday. so that helped reduced my loss (originally brought at par!)

2008 Sep 22 08:40 PM

[Peter Fritz:]

I saw this list on bloomberg.com, updated through 9-20-08. does anybody have the link to it, or know where on bloomberg i can get a refreshed list? thanks

2008 Sep 30 04:38 PM

[who:]

write down are simple losses. does raising capital mean a dilution of shareholder wealth by increasing the shareholder base? both, write off and capital raising not good for the shareholder in this current environment.

2008 Oct 12 02:58 PM