BNP restates intent to sell First Hawaiian stake

BNP Paribas, the French-based banking giant that still owns 62 percent of First Hawaiian Bank, plans to “progressively” sell its remaining stake in the Honolulu-­based company, BNP Chief Operating Officer Philippe Bordenave said Monday during a news conference in Paris.

At one time BNP owned 100 percent of First Hawaiian, but sold a minority stake in the bank through an initial public offering in August 2016 and a January 2017 secondary offering to raise capital so it could meet regulatory requirements.

BNP said at the time of the IPO that it gradually would sell off its stake in First Hawaiian, but did not sell any additional shares during the remainder of last year as the stock languished. Parent company First Hawaiian Inc.’s shares fell 16.2 percent in 2017 and so far in 2018 are off 6.3 percent. First Hawaiian’s shares closed down 28 cents at $27.35 on Tuesday even though the stock market bounced back from Monday’s big sell-off.

Analyst Laurie Havener Hunsicker, who covers First Hawaiian for Washington, D.C.-based investment firm Compass Point Research &Trading LLC, said in a Jan. 26 investors note that she expects First Hawaiian’s stock to gain traction once BNP sells off its stake.

“The lack of clarity around the BNP Paribas stake sale has caused an overhang on shares, as well as lack of clarity on FHB as a stand-alone bank on everything from expenses to share repurchases,” she wrote.