A couple of U.S. banks are tapping the capital markets for fresh funds that should enable them to payback the U.S. government by the end of the month.

J.P. Morgan Chase & Co. announced Tuesday that it priced an offering of 142.0 million shares of its common stock at a price to the public of US$35.25 per share, raising about US$5 billion.

At the same time, Morgan Stanley Inc. announced that it has priced a public offering of approximately 80.2 million shares of common stock to the public at US$27.44 per share for total gross proceeds of approximately US$2.2 billion.

Much of the Morgan Stanley deal is already spoken for. It reported that China Investment Corp. has agreed to purchase 44.7 million shares of common stock at the public offering price, and Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group, Inc. has agreed to purchase 16.0 million shares.

The firms both said that, while approval for repayment has not been granted, they believe that these capital raises will allow them to repay taxpayer money received under the U.S. government’s Troubled Asset Relief Program, and they expect to repay the money before the end of June.

IE