Freddie Mac asks Treasury for $30.8 billion (CNNMoney)

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The mortgage finance company needs more money after losing $50 billion last year.

Colin Barr, senior writer
Last Updated: March 11, 2009: 4:58 PM ET

NEW YORK (Fortune) -- Freddie Mac, the government-backed mortgage finance company, said Wednesday it has asked the government for $30.8 billion in additional funding to close a gaping hole on its books.

The company, which has been majority-owned by taxpayers since a takeover last September, announced the funding request as it reported its sixth straight quarterly loss and shook up its executive suite.

Freddie (FRE, Fortune 500) lost $23.9 billion, or $7.37 a share, for the fourth quarter, reflecting rising credit losses and mark-to-market writedowns on the derivatives the company uses to hedge its interest rate risk. That compares with a year-ago loss of $2.5 billion, or $3.97 a share.

The company lost $50.1 billion, or $34.60 a share, in 2008. Nearly the entire loss came in the second half of the year, following the government's takeover of Freddie and its larger mortgage-finance sibling, Fannie Mae (FNM, Fortune 500), in hopes of stabilizing the housing market.

Executives said the company's losses deepened as the housing market continued its decline, but added that the funds the company provides to mortgage lenders via its purchase or guarantee of mortgages was helping to stem the bleeding.
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more: http://money.cnn.com/2009/03/11/news/freddie.report.fortune/index.htm?cnn=yes

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1. Losses vs. market cap

> Freddie (FRE, Fortune 500) lost $23.9 billion, or $7.37 a share

FRE After Hours: 0.40 Down -0.02 (-4.76%) 6:57pm ET

Market Cap: 271.81M

In one year this company's losses were two orders of magnitude greater than what it would take to buy the company outright.