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Central Pacific Financial Corp. said yesterday that shareholders who own the company’s stock as of the close of trading tomorrow will be eligible to purchase additional shares at $10 each at a future date.
Shares of Central Pacific Bank’s parent closed down 82 cents, or 2.7 percent, at $29.18 yesterday on the New York Stock Exchange.
The additional share offering is capped at $20 million, or 2 million shares.
Shareholders will be able to purchase at least 1.3 shares for every share they own. The shares can be kept, sold or transferred. The new shares offered by Central Pacific will dilute the company’s stock.
Shareholders will not be able to buy the $10 shares until Central Pacific files a registration statement related to the offering with the Securities and Exchange Commission and that statement is approved.
Central Pacific said it expects to file the registration statement this week and will announce the beginning and expiration dates for the rights offering when the information is available.
Central Pacific recently completed a $325 million capital-raising program with private investors in which those investors bought 32.5 million shares for $10 each.
Separately, Fitch Ratings has upgraded the long-term Issuer Default Ratings of Central Pacific Financial Corp. and subsidiary Central Pacific Bank to "B-" from "CC" following the completion of the $325 million capital raise that was led by The Carlyle Group and Anchorage Capital Group. The rating outlook is stable.
"While nonperforming assets are still elevated at 14.14 percent and commercial real estate remains a significant concentration, the level of risk in the portfolio has been materially reduced and the prospect of the company returning to profitability has considerably improved," Fitch said.
