** Shares of Valley National Bancorp down 5.2% premarket to $9.53 after equity raise ** Regional lender late Thurs announced pricing ~42.8 mln share offering at $9.35 for $400 mln gross raise with JP Morgan sole bookrunner
** Offering price represents 7% discount to last sale
** Co plans to use net proceeds for general purposes and investments in subsidiary Valley National Bank as regulatory capital
** VLY has ~509.25 mln shares outstanding for ~$5.1 bln market cap ** Two weeks ago, VLY posted y/y decline in net income in Q3, saying provisions elevated due to higher reserves for commercial real estate loans and commercial and industrial loan growth
** Through Thurs, shares have rallied ~55% from their 2024 lows hit in Jun, leaving them down 7.5% YTD
(Lance Tupper is a Reuters market analyst. The views expressed are his own) ((lance.tupper@thomsonreuters.com lance.tupper@tr.com 1-646-279-6380))