HSBC Gets $17.7 Bn in Largest U.K. Rights Offer

HSBC Holdings Plc, Europe’s biggest bank, raised about $17.7 billion as investors bought 97 percent of the U.K.’s largest-ever rights offer. HSBC sold the shares to existing investors for 254 pence each, 41 percent less than the close on April 3 in London. The bank said March 2 it would seek the money after its North American operation posted a 2007 pretax loss of $15.5 billion.