Thain: Merrill won’t raise more capital

Merrill Lynch & Co Inc. chief executive John A. Thain thinks that the worst of the credit crisis is over and doesn’t see the need for the firm to raise more capital, he told The Business Times, a Singapore-based newspaper.
Recently, New York-based Merrill raised billions of dollars after it was hit with large subprime-mortgage related losses.
“We’re going to go through at least a couple of difficult quarters, more related to a slowdown driven by the consumer rather than the subprime-related problems,” Mr. Thain told the newspaper.
He added that the company’s equity capital is $44 billion, “which is just a little under its record high.”
This slowdown “won’t impact Merrill so much,” Mr. Thain said.
“The next problem area will be those financial institutions who have large exposures to consumer-related debt — home equity loans, auto-loan receivables, credit card receivables. And they would be primarily regional U.S. banks,” he said.