Central Pacific Financial Corp. Announces Public Offering of Common Stock Owned by the United States Department of the Treasury

HONOLULU, June 15, 2011 /PRNewswire/ -- Central Pacific Financial Corp. (NYSE: CPF) (the "Company"), parent company of Central Pacific Bank ("CPB"), today announced that the United States Department of the Treasury ("Treasury") plans to offer all 5,620,117 shares of the Company's common stock it currently holds in an underwritten public offering. Treasury acquired the shares on February 18, 2011 as part of the Company's recapitalization in exchange for 135,000 shares of Fixed Rate Cumulative Perpetual Preferred Stock, no par value per share and liquidation preference $1,000 per share, previously held by Treasury, and accrued and unpaid dividends thereon.

The Company will not receive any of the proceeds from the sale of the shares by Treasury.

Sandler O'Neill & Partners is acting as the book-running manager for the offering and C.L. King & Associates, Guzman & Company and SL Hare Capital are acting as co-managers.

A registration statement relating to the shares in this offering and shares held by certain other selling shareholders was previously filed and declared effective by the Securities and Exchange Commission ("SEC").  A post-effective amendment to the registration statement has been filed with the SEC on June 9, 2011 and has been declared effective.

The offering is being made by means of a prospectus only and may be obtained when available from Sandler O'Neill & Partners, L.P., 919 Third Avenue, 6th Floor, New York, NY 10022 (1-866-805-4128), C.L. King & Associates, 410 Park Avenue, 17th Floor, New York, NY 10022 (212-421-3242), Guzman & Company, 101 Aragon Ave, Coral Gables, FL 33134 (305-374-3600) and SL Hare Capital, 10635 Santa Monica Boulevard, Suite 115, Los Angeles, CA 90025 (310-479-1680).

This press release shall not constitute an offer to sell or the solicitation of an offer to buy any securities, nor shall there be any sale of any securities in any jurisdiction or state in which such offer, solicitation or sale would be unlawful prior to registration or qualification under the securities laws of any such jurisdiction or state.

About Central Pacific Financial Corp.

Central Pacific Financial Corp. is a Hawaii-based bank holding company with $4.0 billion in assets as of March 31, 2011.  Central Pacific Bank, its primary subsidiary, operates 34 branches, 120 ATMs, and a residential mortgage subsidiary in the state of Hawaii.  For additional information, please visit the Company's website at http://www.centralpacificbank.com.  

This document may contain forward-looking statements concerning plans and expectations or assumptions underlying or relating to any of the foregoing.  Forward-looking statements can be identified by the fact that they do not relate strictly to historical or current facts, and may include the words "believes", "plans", "intends", "expects", "anticipates", "forecasts" or words of similar meaning.  While we believe that our forward-looking statements and the assumptions underlying them are reasonably based, such statements and assumptions are by their nature subject to risks and uncertainties, and thus could later prove to be inaccurate or incorrect.  Accordingly, actual results could materially differ from projections for a variety of reasons, to include, but not limited to: the impact of local, national, and international economies and events, including natural disasters, on the Company's business and operations and on tourism, the military, and other major industries operating within the Hawaii market and any other markets in which the Company does business; the impact of regulatory actions on the Company including the memorandums of understanding with the FDIC and the Hawaii Division of Financial Institutions and the written agreement with the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco and the Hawaii Division of Financial Institutions; the impact of legislation affecting the banking industry including the Emergency Economic Stabilization Act of 2008 and the Dodd-Frank Act Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act; the impact of competitive products, services, pricing, and other competitive forces; movements in interest rates; loan delinquency rates and changes in asset quality generally; the price of the Company's stock; volatility in the financial markets and uncertainties concerning the availability of debt or equity financing; and the impact of regulatory supervision.  For further information on factors that could cause actual results to materially differ from projections, please see the Company's publicly available SEC filings, including the Company's 2010 Form 10-K and 2011 Forms 10-Q and, in particular, the risk factors set forth therein.  The Company does not update any of its forward-looking statements.

SOURCE Central Pacific Financial Corp.