Freddie ready to raise capital, now not right time

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Freddie Mac is prepared to raise $5.5 billion in new capital but is waiting for a more opportune time, executives said Wednesday on a conference call after reporting worse-than-expected quarterly results.

"We are certainly poised and ready when market conditions are appropriate, but there's no need for us to rush," Buddy Piszel, chief financial officer of the second-largest U.S. home funding company, said on the call.

Freddie Mac early Wednesday reported its fourth straight quarterly loss and said it has braced for a prolonged housing crisis by doubling the money set aside for bad loans. It also set plans to slash its dividend by at least 80 percent and affirmed its commitment to raise new capital.

"It is our intent to raise $5.5 billion," Richard Syron, the company's chief executive, said on the call.

"We've been working with JPMorgan and Goldman Sachs on that and actually we are prepared to go as early as today to raise that money," he added.

"But we think, and have been advised that that's not the right thing to do for our shareholders -- to do it at a more propitious time," Syron said. "How that rolls out could affect how we run our business in the meantime because we have lots of different ways that we can manage capital."

Shares of Freddie were down 13.2 percent at $6.98 on the New York Stock Exchange in late morning trade.

(Reporting by Lynn Adler and Al Yoon; Editing by Leslie Adler)