Prudential Financial raises $2.4B from offerings

Prudential Financial Inc. said it has raised about $2.4 billion in proceeds from public stock and notes offerings after turning down funds from the government's financial rescue program.

Last week the life insurance and financial services firm said it would not participate in the Treasury Department's Troubled Asset Relief Program. Instead, the company decided to offer approximately 36.9 million shares of its common stock, which included an option that allowed underwriters to buy 4.8 million additional shares.

Prudential has completed the stock offering, and also said late Monday that it closed on a $1 billion offering of Series D medium-term notes.

Last month, the government said it would allow Prudential and five other major insurers to tap the TARP program for additional capital. The other insurers included Hartford Financial Services Group Inc., Allstate Corp., Lincoln National Corp., Ameriprise Financial Inc. and Principal Financial Group Inc.

Both Allstate and Ameriprise also declined to accept the funds.

As of March 31, Prudential's unrealized losses on investments totaled $11.25 billion. The unrealized losses were mostly tied to a decline in value of investment-grade securities the firm still holds. The value of many investments, such as mortgage-backed securities, has plummeted since the middle of 2007.