French giant BNP Paribas is no longer the majority owner of First Hawaiian Bank after a pair of transactions were completed Thursday.

The Paris-based bank raised $503.5 million after completing its secondary offering of First Hawaiian Inc. shares and selling additional shares directly to Hawaii’s largest bank, which conducted its first stock buyback since turning public nearly two years ago.

BNP’s transactions reduced its ownership of First Hawaiian to 49.9 percent from 61.9 percent. If the underwriters exercise their option to purchase their full allotment within the next 30 days, BNP’s remaining stake of First Hawaiian would be reduced further to 48.8 percent, or 66.7 million shares.

In the secondary offering, BNP raised $421.7 million by selling 15.3 million shares at $27.56 apiece. BNP further received $81.8 million from First Hawaiian as part of a direct buyback of nearly 3 million shares at the underwriting discount price of $27.56.

The underwriters — Goldman Sachs &Co., Citigroup, JPMorgan Chase and Deutsche Bank Securities — were paid 19 cents per share for managing the sale. The underwriters also have the option to purchase within 30 days an additional 1.53 million shares at $27.56. If the underwriters fulfill their allotment, BNP’s total take from the secondary offering and buyback would grow to $545.6 million.

First Hawaiian’s stock rose 55 cents, or 2 percent, to $28.29 Thursday in Nasdaq trading.

Banking analyst Laurie Havener Hunsicker of Compass Point Research & Trading said in an investors’ report Wednesday that BNP’s ownership stake dropping below 50 percent is an important threshold for the bank because it ceases to become a “controlled company.” As such, she said the Nasdaq’s corporate governance rules require that within 90 days more than half the members on the bank’s nominating and compensation committees come from outside the company’s executive ranks. Within one year no company executives can serve on those committees.

“BNP currently has five out of nine spots on FHB’s board,” Hunsicker wrote. “Our bigger read-through is that BNP will likely further reduce or fully exit within one year as their board representation will be diminished. We continue to believe that once BNP fully exits their FHB stake,” FHB’s share price should rise.

At one time BNP owned 100 percent of First Hawaiian, but it 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.

First Hawaiian’s IPO, which was priced at $23 on Aug. 3, 2016, closed the following day at $24.25 on its first day of trading. BNP’s secondary offering was priced at $32 a share, but the stock has languished since then and is down 3.1 percent this year and off 3.9 percent over the past 52 weeks.

BNP, owner of San Francisco-based Bank of the West, acquired 45 percent ownership of First Hawaiian in 1998 when First Hawaiian and Bank of the West merged. BNP then bought the balance of First Hawaiian in 2001.