Lincoln Financial seeks to buy out Treasury's stake in firm

Lincoln Financial Group on Monday announced it will conduct a public offering of equity and debt securities as part of a plan to fully repurchase the $950 million in preferred shares issued to the Treasury under the Department's Capital Purchase Program. 

The offering will consist of $335 million of common stock and up to $750 million of senior notes. 

"We appreciate the critical role the government and the American taxpayers have played in stabilizing the financial markets, and we are pleased to announce a plan to repurchase Treasury's investment sooner than originally anticipated," said Dennis R. Glass, the firm's president and CEO, in prepared remarks. "Lincoln Financial always viewed this investment as temporary capital and intended to return it as soon as it was prudent." 

The company plans to use a portion of the net proceeds of the offerings to repurchase the Treasury's preferred shares once it has received approval to do so. Following the repayment, the Treasury will continue to hold warrants to purchase about 13 million shares of the firm's common stock at an exercise price of $10.92 per share. The company does not intend to repurchase the warrants.