Freddie posts another loss, will slash dividend

By Al Yoon

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Freddie Mac (FRE.N) on Wednesday posted its fourth consecutive quarterly loss, set plans to slash its common stock dividend and doubled its reserves for losses on delinquent loans and home foreclosures.

Just three weeks after U.S. authorities orchestrated a sweeping effort to prop up the second-biggest provider of U.S. residential mortgage funding and its rival Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac affirmed a commitment to raise $5.5 billion in fresh capital.

It provided no immediate details of its capital plan but repeated that it continues to maintain a surplus over regulatory capital requirements.

For the second quarter, McLean, Virginia-based Freddie Mac reported a loss of $821 million, or $1.63 cents per share, compared with a profit of $729 million, or 96 cents per share, a year earlier.

It was not immediately clear whether the loss was directly comparable with the average estimate among Wall Street analysts for a loss of 28 cents per share, according to Reuters Estimates.

FOURTH STRAIGHT LOSS

The second-quarter loss follows a $151 million loss in the first quarter and brings its cumulative loss over the past four quarters to more than $4.6 billion amid the steepest U.S. housing downturn since the Great Depression.

"While we expect continued housing and economic weakness will affect our overall performance this year, we continue to maintain a surplus over all regulatory capital requirements," Chairman and Chief Executive Richard Syron said in a statement. "We remain committed to raising $5.5 billion of new capital and will evaluate raising capital beyond this amount depending on our needs and as market conditions mandate."

In light premarket trading, Freddie Mac shares fell about 6 percent to $7.60 from Tuesday's closing price of $8.04.

Freddie Mac and rival Fannie Mae (FNM.N) faced a storm of stock selling last month as investors speculated the companies would fall short of the capital needed to offset losses sustained from delinquent mortgages.

The turmoil led U.S. Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson, in concert with U.S. Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke, to arrange emergency measures that bolstered government backing for the companies.

DIVIDEND SLASH

To help preserve capital, Freddie Mac said it would slash its quarterly dividend, pending board approval, by 80 percent to 5 cents a share from 25 cents a share. On an annualized basis, that will save Freddie Mac more than $500 million based on current shares outstanding.

The companies own or guarantee more than $5 trillion in mortgages, or nearly half of all U.S. home loans.

Freddie said revenue rose by more than 10 percent from the first quarter to $1.69 billion, including a increase of 92 percent in net interest income to $1.5 billion.

But the company more than doubled its provisions for loan losses to $2.5 billion since the end of the first quarter. All credit-related expenses surged to $2.8 billion in the quarter from $1.4 billion in the previous quarter and $463 million a year earlier.

Total credit losses rose to $810 million from $528 million in the first quarter.

Freddie Mac shares closed Tuesday at $8.04, up 6.9 percent on the session amid the biggest one-day gain for the benchmark Standard & Poor's 500 .SPX in four months. While the stock has more than doubled from its early-July low of $3.89, it remains nearly 90 percent below its 52-week high of $66.65 set last August.

(Editing by Walker Simon)