US investment bank Lehman Brothers has announced its first quarterly loss since going public in 1994.
The bank said that it had lost $2.8 billion over the second quarter – a result with which chief executive Richard Fuld said he was “very disappointed”.
Lehman has been taking steps recently to shore up its balance sheet, following multi-billion credit crunch-related asset write-downs; rumors of liquidity problems at the bank have also been circulating on Wall Street recently.
Around $6 billion was garnered from a shares sell-off at below market value last Friday, to add to the $8 billion raised by Fuld since February.
“It’s kind of sobering for people who have been listening to the company these last six to nine months that they had everything under control,” says David Hendler, analyst, CreditSights, when speaking to Bloomberg.
“It shows that the market continues to be difficult. I would say Lehman’s probably not the only broker that has these kinds of pressures,” adds Hendler.
Lehman shares dropped by 12% in New York as the markets reacted to the news.