Lincoln National prices offer at $15 per share

The insurer Lincoln National Corp. has priced a stock offering of 40 million shares at $15 per share. The price diclosed late Tuesday represents a less than 1 percent discount from Tuesday's closing price of $15.06. Lincoln National, which markets itself as Lincoln Financial Group, will raise about $600 million from the stock offer. Underwriters have the option to purchase an additional 6 million shares, which would bring the total amount raised to about $690 million. Lincoln National said it plans to use the proceeds from the stock offering for general corporate purposes, including contributing funds to its insurance operating subsidiaries. The sale of common stock is part of a broader plan to raise capital to bolster the insurer's balance sheet and reserves. On Monday, Lincoln National said it would raise more than $2 billion. Included in those efforts, Lincoln National will accept as much as $950 million in capital as part of the government's $700 billion Troubled Asset Relief Program. It was not until last month that the government said it would allow Lincoln and five other major insurers to tap the program for additional capital. Lincoln National had received preliminary approval to receive up to $2.5 billion from the government. As the banking industry accepted billions in government bailout funds last fall, life insurers aggressively lobbied for their own piece of the federal aid, worried about their balance sheets, which had been saddled by hefty investment losses from the declines in the stock market. But the government was slow to approve the requests. Subsequently, the stocks of most public insurance companies fell sharply before recently rebounding somewhat with the broader market. Lincoln National also said it plans to raise $500 million through a senior debt offering. The stock offering is expected to close Monday.