Lehman Brothers seems to be fighting back after a Wall Street Journal report that it might be planning a new round of capital raising hammered its shares in futures trading. Reuters now has a report attributed to "a source familiar with the matter" that denies the Journal's story.
Lehman does not need to raise capital and "would only do so if the right market opportunity presented itself or if the firm thought it would help investor perceptions," that familiar source tells Reuters. The source tells Reuters that it the possibility of raise=ing capital was only one of "dozens" of options for the bank.
For now Lehman is officially remaining quiet. But this story has all the earmarks of a plant from the highest levels of the investment bank. its a risky gamble. If Lehman does now turnaround and raise capital, its credibility will be even further damaged. And while Lehman's shares seem to have recovered from where early indicators pointed, this new story only makes the situation murkier. We're in a battle of perceptions but its very far from clear what the underlying reality is.
Lehman mulls capital raising as one option [Reuters]
Posted by Finnegan, Jun 03, 2008 10:12AM
Well if they go on and raise it, they will say, "The right opportunity presented itself".