April 14 (Bloomberg) -- Wachovia Corp., the fourth-largest U.S. bank, plans to release quarterly results four days early, prompting speculation the company may report its first loss since 2001.

First-quarter figures will be disclosed today instead of April 18, the Charlotte, North Carolina-based bank said in a statement late yesterday. Wachovia may receive as much as $7 billion from investors to shore up capital, the Wall Street Journal reported, citing unidentified people familiar with the matter. Wachovia fell 14 cents to $27.67 in German trading.

``I'm assuming they're going to have a meaningful loss,'' said Gerard Cassidy, an analyst at RBC Capital Markets, after hearing about the date change and possible cash infusion. He had estimated Wachovia would earn about 40 cents a share.

Chief Executive Officer Kennedy Thompson may report the bank's first loss since the third quarter of 2001 because of California's weak housing market, depressed prices for commercial mortgage-backed securities and loans for leveraged buyouts. Thompson has told shareholders the $24 billion purchase of home lender Golden West Financial Corp. in 2006 was mistimed, and that Wachovia now faces ``a moment of truth.''

Wachovia will disclose results no later than 6 a.m. New York time, the company's statement said. Voice and e-mail messages left for spokeswoman Christy Phillips-Brown weren't returned.

The world's biggest banks and securities firms have raised more than $140 billion to replenish capital after $245 billion of writedowns and credit losses since the beginning of 2007.

Dividend in Doubt

A loss may pressure Wachovia to cut its dividend, a move predicted on March 25 by Merrill Lynch & Co. analyst Edward Najarian. The current yield is 9.2 percent, compared with 2.26 percent for the Standard & Poor's 500 Stock Index.

``The prudent management decision would be to cut the dividend and start rebuilding it over time,'' Cassidy said.

New investors may give Wachovia $6 billion to $7 billion in return for shares priced at about $23 or $24 each, the Journal reported. The stock closed at $27.81 last week after falling by almost 50 percent during the past 12 months, reducing the company's market value to $55.1 billion.

The investors may include New York-based buyout firm Warburg Pincus LLC, the Journal said. Warburg Pincus spokeswoman Sarah Gestetner hasn't responded to an e-mail.

Wachovia wrote off $2.9 billion in the second half of 2007, mainly because of loans related to housing and collateralized debt obligations backed by mortgages to borrowers with poor credit records.

Washington Mutual

Wachovia's capital raising would be the second this year following a $3.5 billion offering of preferred stock in February. It would also mirror the $7 billion investment last week in Washington Mutual Inc., the largest U.S. savings and loan, by a group led by David Bonderman's TPG Inc. Washington Mutual cut its dividend to 1 cent a share from 15 cents and announced 3,000 job cuts.

Thompson, 57, who became CEO of Wachovia predecessor First Union Corp. in April 2000, made his biggest acquisition with Golden West, the Oakland, California-based home lender, at the height of the housing boom. Thompson got board approval for the transaction 11 days after the initial contact between the two companies in April 2006, a regulatory filing showed.

Golden West specialized in so-called option adjustable-rate mortgages, which allow borrowers to decide to skip some or all of the monthly payments and add the amount to their principal. About 60 percent of Wachovia's $120 billion in adjustable-rate mortgages are in California, among the states hardest hit as housing prices tumbled.

Late Payments

About $2.8 billion in option-ARMs were more than 90 days late at Wachovia on Dec. 31, up from $675 million a year earlier. Washington Mutual, Countrywide Financial Corp. and other large option-ARM lenders have reported rising levels of delinquencies this year, sparking concern that Wachovia's late payments would also escalate.

Wachovia's late payments and losses from the loans have been lower than industry averages through the end of 2007, prompting Chief Risk Officer Donald Truslow to say in February that the bank's mortgage business might remain profitable even if loans losses quadrupled this year.

Wachovia also faces higher losses on its mortgage-backed securities and leveraged loans, along with mounting problems in its commercial real estate, home equity and construction loan businesses, Cassidy said.

``These investors in Wachovia, if the reports are true, are making assumptions about what the losses are going to be, but no one really knows what they will be,'' Cassidy said.

A dividend cut is likely because the payout is costing Wachovia about $5 billion a year, according to analysts including Merrill's Najarian.

To contact the reporter on this story: David Mildenberg in Charlotte at dmildenberg@bloomberg.net

Last Updated: April 14, 2008 03:41 EDT