Fifth Third looking to sell assets

Troubled regional Financial Fifth Third is looking to sell assets along with cutting its dividend and raising capital in order to shore up its balance sheet. The company announced it was looking into asset sales when it announced its dividend cut and capital raising intentions. However, Barron’s has a piece today speculating on just which assets those could be.

Last week, Fifth Third Bancorp announced several initiatives intended to strengthen its capital position, including the potential sale of certain noncore assets.

Although probably speculation at this point, we believe Fifth Third’s processing-solutions segment, which includes Fifth Third’s merchant-acquiring franchise and the Jeanie electronic funds transfer (EFT) network, could certainly be considered an asset that is not being fully valued by the market, whose value could be monetized through either a sale or some kind of equity offering.
–Barron’s, 25 Jun 2008

Expect to hear more specifics in the future about Fifth Third’s plans.

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