SAN FRANCISCO — Wells Fargo, seeking to wipe away the tarnish of U.S. government bailout funds and keep pace with its rivals, sold $12.25 billion of common stock Tuesday to help repay the Troubled Asset Relief Program.
The bank priced 489.9 million shares at $25 each, including 63.9 million shares bought by underwriters, the company said in a statement. Exercising the option allows the bank to avoid selling assets, the company said. Wells Fargo plans to return all $25 billion that taxpayers invested last year, according to a statement issued Monday.
The exit from TARP would put Wells Fargo on the same footing as Bank of America, JPMorgan Chase and Citigroup, its largest competitors, which have paid back the U.S. or set plans for repayment.
Wells Fargo chief executive John Stumpf vowed earlier this year to repay TARP in a “shareholder-friendly” way, a description he repeated Tuesday during a conference call about the stock sale.
“They were the last big company to still have TARP, and TARP has such a negative connotation,” Paul Miller, an analyst at FBR Capital Markets Inc., said in a Bloomberg TV interview.
