SYDNEY (Reuters) - National Australia Bank Ltd NAB.AX asked investors for A$3.5 billion ($2.2 billion) and slashed its dividend to the lowest in almost three decades, as its first-half profit tumbled in part due to charges associated with the coronavirus pandemic.

FILE PHOTO: The company logo indicates the front of National Australia Bank house in Sydney October 21, 2008. REUTERS/Tim Wimborne

The planned capital raising, via a discounted share sale, is the biggest by an Australian company since the virus outbreak, which has killed 83 people in the country and shut down large parts of the world’s 12th-biggest economy.

The bank, Australia’s third-biggest, said it had decided to pay more than A$850 million in dividends, or about a third of what it paid last year, rather than scrapping it as it did not want investors who depended on the income to dump the stock.

Its decision follows a regulatory directive to consider postponing shareholder payouts until the impact of the pandemic was better known.

NAB, which brought forward its results by 10 days, is the first Australian bank to report earnings since the pandemic arrived in the country and so portends what could come from the rest of the sector.

Its call to cut its interim dividend to 30 cents per share, lowest since 1993, from 83 cents last year may influence capital management decisions at other large lenders that are scheduled to report financial results over the coming fortnight.

“It was a balancing act,” NAB CEO Ross McEwan told analysts on a call referring to the bank’s capital raising and dividend decisions. “I think 48% of our shareholding is retail, we don’t want them running out the door at the same time we are doing a capital raise.”

McEwan, who started in the role in December, has taken a 20% cut in his base pay amid the coronavirus crisis.

NAB shares were in a trading halt on Monday while the bank sought to raise A$3 billion from institutional investors and another A$500 million from retail investors.

It was looking to sell shares at a 8.5% discount to the last closing price of A$15.46, adjusted for the interim dividend.

Placement underwriters said later in the day that the book had been covered and fully allocated with local and international investors.

NAB DECISION ‘CAUTIONARY’

As investors feared more capital raisings from the rest of the Big Four lenders, shares of Westpac Banking Corp WBC.AX and ANZ fell 2.31% and 4.37% respectively, while the broader market .AXJO rose 1.5%. Commonwealth Bank of Australia CBA.AX shares were unchanged.

“We think NAB’s decision is cautionary because there is still a lot of uncertainty,” said Jun Bei Liu, a portfolio manager a Tribeca. “I expect both Westpac and ANZ could follow given they are facing a very similar situation.”

NAB’s bad debt charges were at A$1.16 billion for the six months to March, more than double the A$470 million in the previous six months, to account for expected credit losses from an economic downturn that could trigger a 10% drop in home prices, its base case scenario.

That included a A$807 million charge, which analysts described as “light”, to reflect potential COVID-19 impacts, pushing NAB’s underlying net profit down 51% to A$1.44 billion for the six months to March 31.

NAB is the country’s biggest lender to small businesses, which have been hit hard by the coronavirus pandemic.

“We have spoken to tens of thousands of small businesses and they’re hurting badly ... and it was so sudden,” McEwan said.