Sep. 15--After a strong couple of months for Wall Street, companies are coming back to the market to raise funds, including Henrico County-based Genworth Financial Inc., which late yesterday announced a $500 million sale of stock.

The offering, among the largest to come to market recently, is to raise funds for general corporate purposes, Genworth said.

Virginians were big players in stock offerings yesterday, with Smithfield Foods Inc. announcing it was launching a $250 million stock offering yesterday.

Fairfax-based consulting and technology services firm ICF International Inc., meanwhile, filed the paperwork with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission that would let it sell up to $200 million worth of stock in the near future.

Genworth's offering is for the equivalent of about 10 percent of its current total of outstanding shares, or about 43.9 million shares based on yesterday's closing price of $11.39.

The stock rose 23 cents, or 2.06 percent, on the New York Stock Exchange.

Goldman Sachs Group Inc., Bank of America Corp. and Deutsche Bank AG are underwriting the offering.

Genworth has moved aggressively this year to beef up its balance sheet, building up large holdings of cash and paying off $661 million in debt. It has no more debt coming due before 2011.

Last month, Genworth disclosed it has so much cash that it decided to reinvest a billion dollars of its holdings.

It built up cash to help cope with slumping housing markets.

The mortgage meltdown hit Genworth in two ways -- its mortgage-insurance business repays banks when people can't keep up payments on their mortgages, while the company is a major buyer of bonds backed by mortgages.

To strengthen its balance sheet, it has been cutting costs, including laying off 400 people at its headquarters early this year, as well as cashing in some investments.

In July, Genworth sold stock in its Canadian unit, raising $705 million in what was the biggest deal in Canada in two years. Genworth sold 49 percent of the unit to Canadian investors.

Genworth this year agreed to sell its Mexico-based auto-, property-, lifeand accident-insurance business to HDI-Gerling International Holding AG. It did not disclose terms. ------

Contact David Ress at (804) 649-6051 or dress@timesdispatch.com.

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