First Community Corporation Announces Pricing of Common Stock Offering

LEXINGTON, S.C., July 24, 2012 /PRNewswire/ -- First Community Corporation (Nasdaq: FCCO), the holding company for First Community Bank, N.A., announced today that it has priced its previously announced underwritten public offering of 1,630,435 shares of its common stock at a price of $8.00 per share. 

(Logo: http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20030508/FCCOLOGO )

The Company expects to receive net proceeds from this offering of approximately $12.0 million, after deducting underwriting discounts and commissions and other estimated expenses (or approximately $13.8 million if the underwriter exercises its over-allotment option in full).  Raymond James & Associates, Inc. is acting as the sole book-running manager for the offering.  The Company has granted the underwriter an option to purchase up to an additional 244,565 shares of common stock to cover over-allotments, if any.

The Company intends to use the proceeds of the offering to repurchase all of its outstanding Series T Preferred Stock and, potentially, the warrant issued to the U.S. Treasury pursuant to the TARP Capital Purchase Program.  Additionally, it intends to use any remaining proceeds for general corporate purposes, including contributing a portion of the proceeds to the Bank as additional capital to support organic growth and, potentially, opportunistic acquisitions that meet its investment criteria. The approval of the U.S. Treasury and the Company's banking regulators is required for the repurchase of the Series T Preferred Stock.  The Company has consulted with its banking regulators as to its intent to repurchase the Series T Preferred Stock, and the Company understands that the U.S. Treasury will also consult with these regulators upon receipt of notice from the Company of its intention to repurchase the Series T Preferred Stock.

The Company expects to close the transaction, subject to customary conditions, on or about July 27, 2012.

This announcement shall not constitute an offer to sell or the solicitation of an offer to buy these securities, nor shall there be any offer or sale of these securities in any jurisdiction in which such offer, solicitation or sale would be unlawful prior to registration or qualification under the securities laws of any such jurisdiction.  A registration statement relating to these securities has been filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission.  The offering will be made only by means of the prospectus which is a part of such registration statement.  A copy of the prospectus may be obtained from Raymond James & Associates, Inc. at 880 Carillon Parkway, St. Petersburg, Florida 33716, (800) 248-8863.

First Community Corporation stock trades on the NASDAQ Capital Market under the symbol "FCCO" and is the holding company for First Community Bank, N.A., a local community bank based in the midlands of South Carolina.  First Community Bank, N.A. operates eleven banking offices located in Lexington, Richland, Newberry and Kershaw counties in addition to First Community Financial Consultants, a financial planning/investment advisory division and Palmetto South Mortgage, a separate mortgage division.

Cautionary Statement Regarding Forward Looking Statements

Certain statements in this news release contain "forward-looking statements" within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995, such as statements relating to future plans and expectations, and are thus prospective. Such forward-looking statements are identified by words such as "believes," "expects," "anticipates," "estimates," "intends," "plans," "targets," and "projects," as well as similar expressions are subject to risks, uncertainties, and other factors, which could cause actual results to differ materially from future results expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements. Factors which could cause actual results to differ materially from the anticipated results or other expectations expressed in the forward-looking statements include but are not limited to: (1) the strength of the United States economy in general and the strength of the local economies in which the Company conducts its operations which could result in, among other things, a deterioration in the credit quality or a reduced demand for credit, including the resultant effect on our loan portfolio and allowance for loan losses and the rate of delinquencies and amounts of charge-offs, or adverse changes in asset quality in our loan portfolio, which may result in increased credit risk-related losses and expenses; (2) adverse conditions in the stock market, the public debt market and other capital markets (including changes in interest rate conditions) and the impact of such conditions on the Company; and (3) actions taken by banking regulatory agencies related to the banking industry in general and the Company specifically. Although we believe that the assumptions underlying the forward-looking statements are reasonable, any of the assumptions could prove to be inaccurate. Therefore, we can give no assurance that the results contemplated in the forward-looking statements will be realized.

The inclusion of this forward-looking information should not be construed as a representation by our company or any person that the future events, plans, or expectations contemplated by our company will be achieved. Additional factors that could cause our results to differ materially from those described in the forward-looking statements can be found in our reports (such as Annual Reports on Form 10-K, Quarterly Reports on Form 10-Q and Current Reports on Form 8-K) filed with the SEC and available at the SEC's Internet site (http://www.sec.gov). All subsequent written and oral forward-looking statements concerning the Company or any person acting on its behalf is expressly qualified in its entirety by the cautionary statements above. We do not undertake any obligation to update any forward-looking statement to reflect circumstances or events that occur after the date the forward-looking statements are made.

SOURCE First Community Corporation