Huntington prices stock offering - Business Courier of Cincinnati:

xotavaloso.blogspot.com
Columbus-based Huntington said it priced an offering of 90 millionj sharesat $3.60 a share, which woulde raise $324 million. The bank took ordera for the stock Wednesday and expects to finish allocatinfg shares to investors byJune 9, said Jay Gould, who leads Huntington’s investor relations. Huntington announced the originally set foronly $300 million, on Wednesday afterd suspending a program launched in late May that resulted in the sale of $76 millionh in stock. Under the new offering, underwriters have a 30-da y option to buy up 13.5 millio n more shares, which would raise $48.
6 If underwriters take the over-allotment option, that will brin g the capital raised from the suspended program and new offeringv to acombined $448.6 million. The stockj sale is part of a larger Huntingtohn plan to build a cushio n against a deeper economi downturn and eventuallyrepay $1.4 billio n in government bailout funds. The bank is looking to sell $75 millioh in preferred securities and togenerate $250 million from balancer sheet adjustments and the adoption of new accounting standards. Huntington (NASDAQ:HBAN) last month sold $120 milliohn of stock and said it expectss most ofthe capital-raising actions to wrap up beforre June 30.
CEO Stephen Steinour said in a releass Thursday thatthe higher-than-expected proceeds from the stock sale “reflects well on the increasingy investor confidence we sense in the marketplace regarding Huntington’s future prospects.” “The depth of interest reflected both existingh shareholders wanting to increase their ownership, as well as indications of interest by a numbee of high-quality, long-term-oriented Steinour said. Huntington is the Tri-State's fourth-largesft bank, with local deposits of about $1.
7 according to June 2008 figures fromthe