US investment bank Merrill Lynch has said it took a $14.1 billion write-down in the fourth quarter of 2007 on bad sub-prime mortgage investments plus other charges.
These have forced the bank to sell pieces of the company to foreign investors to raise capital.
Merrill Lynch reported a fourth-quarter net loss of $9.8 billion, or $12.01 a share, the largest in the company's history. That eclipses the company's $2.3 billion loss in the previous quarter. The company lost a total of $7.8 billion in the full year.
US banks, wrestling with huge losses stemming from US mortgage investments, have been seeking cash from abroad from sovereign wealth funds.
Merrill said on Tuesday it would raise $6.6 billion from selling preferred shares to an investor group that included the Kuwait Investment Authority. That is on top of the $6.2 billion capital infusion announced last month in a deal with Singapore's Temasek Holdings and US-based Davis Selected Advisers.
