Wachovia Shares Slip on Profit Drop

Wachovia on Friday posted a 10 percent decline in quarterly profit, missing forecasts, as the fourth-largest U.S. bank suffered $1.3 billion of write-downs at its investment banking unit.

Wachovia shares slid 97 cents, or 2.01 percent, at $47.17 in Friday trade on the New York Stock Exchange.

Third-quarter net income fell to $1.69 billion, or 89 cents per share, from $1.88 billion, or $1.17, a year earlier. The decline was the first in six years.

Excluding merger costs, profit was $1.71 billion, or 90 cents per share, as revenue rose 4 percent to $7.35 billion.

On that basis, analysts on average expected profit of $1.04 per share on revenue of $7.77 billion, according to Reuters Estimates.

Wachovia slashed its forecast for 2007 fee income, and nearly quadrupled the amount it set aside for bad loans.

"In such a large meltdown in global capital markets, it's tough to avoid problems," said Gerard Cassidy, an analyst at RBC Capital Markets in Portland, Maine, who rates Wachovia "sector perform."

"Wachovia dramatically increased loan-loss provisions," Cassidy added. "It took larger write-downs in commercial mortgages and structured products than rivals because it has a bigger presence. We anticipate greater credit losses in the next year, which will restrain earnings growth."

The results conclude a dismal week for large U.S. banks, which have been battered by increases in bad loans, and capital market disruptions that resulted in trading losses and left several stuck holding debt whose value was falling.

Profit fell 57 percent at Citigroup and 32 percent at Bank of America, while it rose just 2 percent at JPMorgan Chase and 4 percent at Wells Fargo. The results and outlook for all but JPMorgan disappointed investors.

Big Write-Down

Wachovia said the $1.3 billion write-down including $1.03 billion for structured products, more than half of which related to mortgages, and $272 million for leveraged loans.

This helped push investment banking profit 80 percent lower to $105 million, as revenue sank 51 percent to $819 million.

The capital management unit, meanwhile, wrote down $40 million for asset-backed commercial paper investments.

Disruption in fixed-income markets "clearly had a disappointing impact on the results of market-oriented businesses," Chief Executive Ken Thompson said in a statement.

Wachovia said it set aside $408 million for credit losses, up from $108 million a year earlier. Net charge-offs rose 78 percent to $206 million from $116 million, reflecting increases from auto, consumer real estate and commercial lending.

CONTINUED : Bad Loans & Wachovia's $7 Billion Elephant

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