Dire pronouncements about the sub-prime mortgage market have led to a raft of asset sales as banks, financial firms and mortgage lenders including KKR Financial scurried to offload the offending securities or raise money to deal with the fallout.

KKR Financial, the REIT subsidiary of Kohlberg Kravis Roberts, followed up on its $5.1bn (€3.78bn) sale of mortgage securities last week by announcing two stock sales. KKR Financial said it would sell $500m in stock through two offerings, one to a group of institutional investors and the other through a share sale to public stockholders.