Washington Mutual - Grösste Sparkasse der USA! Chancen & Risiken. ( Seite 90)

NEW YORK -(Dow Jones)- In the three days since Washington Mutual Inc. (WM) installed new leadership, its stock has sunk more than 50%.

The Seattle thrift's challenges to fixing its loan book are monumental and Wall Street reacted with much skepticism to the appointment of Alan Fishman as chief executive on Monday.

Fishman, who built up and ultimately sold Independence Community Bank Corp., a New York thrift, tried to give investors some confidence in WaMu's vast deposit base Monday. "On the liability side of the balance sheet, you've got an approach and a franchise that seems to be the envy of the business," he said in an interview.

But investors continue to shy away from the stock. On Wednesday, the stock fell 30% to close at a new 52-week low of $2.32.

"There are multiple reasons" why the stock continues to decline, said Frank J. Barkocy, director of research at Mendon Capital Advisors Corp. Regulators imposed a memorandum of understanding, demanding a multi-year business plan to improve its risk-management procedures. In addition, WaMu's fundamentals "are absolutely horrible," he said.

Barkocy, a veteran bank-stock investor, has no position in WaMu and isn't considering buying the stock any time soon. Fishman, he said, "is a good banker but hasn't run an operation of this size."

Finally, it becomes more and more clear to Wall Street that a deal to rescue shareholders might be far off. Asked whether he will keep WaMu independent, Fishman answered with a simple "Yes," and added: "Shame on us if we can't figure out how to make this a really value accretive, important company.

More importantly, however, WaMu might not have much of an option but to go it alone. With $310 billion of assets, its sheer size makes an acquisition difficult, particularly since all of WaMu's illiquid mortgage assets would have to be marked to market rates, requiring the buyer to take a huge charge.

"Wells Fargo & Co. (WFC) has the capital" to buy WaMu, but such deal "does not fit its long-standing program" to grow through bite-sized acquisitions, Barkocy said. Wells Fargo's management has repeatedly said it doesn't want to do a large deal.

Bank of America Corp. (BAC) is busy digesting Countrywide Financial Corp., the giant mortgage lender it bought in July. Wachovia Corp. (WB) is struggling with its own mortgage issues, as is Citigroup Inc.(C).

That leaves virtually only foreign buyers - or JPMorgan Chase & Co. (JPM), which has long had a desire to expand into Florida and California, two of WaMu's biggest markets. JPMorgan Chase would also consolidate its power in Chicago and New York.

Purchase accounting sank Fifth Third Bancorp's (FITB) attempt to purchase National City Corp. (NCC) earlier this year, but it didn't factor into JPMorgan Chase's run on WaMu, said people familiar with the matter.

JPMorgan Chase Chief Executive James Dimon has said that purchase-accounting rules would make it more difficult, but not impossible, for his company to do a deal for WaMu.

JPMorgan Chase made a bid earlier this year for WaMu but was rebuffed by Kerry Killinger, the legendary CEO who built WaMu - and who was ousted by its board on Monday.

-By Matthias Rieker, Dow Jones Newswires; 201-938-5936; matthias.rieker@ dowjones.com