Huntington prices stock offering - Business Courier of Cincinnati:

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Columbus-based Huntington said it priced an offering of 90 millionm sharesat $3.60 a which would raise $324 million. The bank took orderx for the stock Wednesday and expectz to finish allocating shares to investors byJune 9, said Jay who leads Huntington’s investor Huntington announced the offering, originally set for only $300 million, on Wednesdauy after suspending a progra launched in late May that resultede in the sale of $76 million in stock. Under the new underwriters havea 30-day option to buy up 13.5 million more which would raise $48.6 million.
If underwriters take the over-allotmentr option, that will bring the capital raised from the suspendeds program and new offerinbg to acombined $448.6 million. The stock sale is part of a larger Huntington plan to build a cushion against a deeper economic downturhn and eventuallyrepay $1.4 billion in governmentt bailout funds. The bank is looking to sell $75 million in preferred securities and togenerate $250 million from balance sheet adjustmentds and the adoption of new accounting standards. Huntingtob (NASDAQ:HBAN) last month sold $120 million of stock and said it expectsx most ofthe capital-raising actions to wrap up beforse June 30.
CEO Stephen Steinour said in a release Thursday thatthe higher-than-expected proceeds from the stoco sale “reflects well on the increasingv investor confidence we sense in the marketplac regarding Huntington’s future “The depth of interest reflected both existinhg shareholders wanting to increase their ownership, as well as indications of interesty by a number of high-quality, long-term-orientexd investors,” Steinour said. Huntington is the Tri-State'ss fourth-largest bank, with local depositws of about $1.
7 billion, according to June 2008 figures fromthe