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UPDATE 1-First Financial prices share offering at discount

Thu Sep 24, 2009 9:29am EDT

Stocks

   

* To sell about 4.2 mln shrs at $15.50/shr

* Sees net proceeds at $60.6 mln

* Proceeds to support units, FDIC-assisted deals

Sept 24 (Reuters) - First Financial Holdings Inc (FFCH.O) said it would publicly offer about 4.2 million shares at $15.50 each, a 5 percent discount to the stock's Wednesday's close.

Net proceeds of $60.6 million from the offering will be used to provide capital to support the growth of its subsidiaries and possible FDIC-assisted transactions, the savings, loan holding and financial holding company said.

The capital would also position the company for potential future redemption of the preferred stock issued to the U.S. Treasury under the Troubled Asset Relief Program Capital Purchase Program, First Financial said.

Sandler O'Neill Partners L.P. is the sole book-running manager of the offering, which is planned to close on or about Sept. 29.

Shares of the Charleston, South Carolina-based company fell 2 percent to $16.05 in pre-market trading on Thursday. (Reporting by Brenton Cordeiro in Bangalore; Editing by Gopakumar Warrier)



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