Annaly Capital Prices $1.1bn in Stock to Buy Mortgage Securities

Real estate investment trust (REIT) Annaly Capital Management ($14.80 -0.2081%) expects to have raised $1.1bn of gross proceeds from its public offering of 60m shares of common stock this week.

The company plans to use the proceeds to buy mortgage-backed securities (MBS) for its investment portfolio, and to cover general corporate expenses including additional investments and repayment of short-term indebtedness.

The firm announced the public offering Tuesday afternoon. Annaly granted the underwriters a 30-day option to purchase up to an additional 9m shares of common stock to cover any over-allotments.

Credit Suisse Securities ($30.28 0.0237%) acts as the lead book-running manager for the offering. Barclays Capital, Deutsche Bank Securities ($48.29 -0.16%) and RCap Securities are book-running managers.

It marks the latest in a strong year of capital-raising efforts for US REITs, which so far in 2010 raised $22bn in initial, debt and equity capital offerings, according to recent data from the National Association of REITs, NAREIT.

Write to Diana Golobay.

Disclosure: the author holds no relevant investments.