Treasury to Raise at Least $172M in Comerica Warrants Sale

WASHINGTON — The Treasury Department is set to make at least $172 million from its auction Thursday of warrants to buy shares of Comerica Inc.

The Treasury said in a statement Tuesday it would sell 11.48 million warrants to purchase common stock of the Dallas bank for a minimum bid price of $15 each.

The warrant auction is part of a U.S. effort to minimize losses on a controversial $700 billion financial-sector bailout that started in 2008. The Treasury announced plans last month to sell warrants in six banks, including Comerica.

The other five banks are Wells Fargo & Co., PNC Financial Services Group Inc., Valley National Bancorp, Sterling Bancshares Inc. and First National Bancorp.

Friday, the Treasury said it would collect $320 million from its auction of warrants to buy shares in PNC. Treasury has netted about $3 billion from auctions so far and has deals in the pipeline that could earn an additional $1.3 billion by the end of May.

The federal government received the warrants in 2008 when it provided support to about 270 banks through Treasury's Troubled Asset Relief Program.

The Comerica offering is being lead by Deutsche Bank Securities Inc., which is the sole book-running manager.

Blaylock Robert Van, LLC, Guzman & Company, and The Williams Capital Group, L.P. are the co-managers.

The price of Comerica stock was down 2.4% at $42.11 in late trading Tuesday.

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