Oct. 1--First Niagara Financial Group completed its newest stock offering, raising $460.1 million in additional capital to bolster its balance sheet and position the banking company for additional growth.

The Lockport-based savings bank issued 38.341 million shares of common stock, netting about $441.5 million after commissions and expenses.

That includes 5.001 million shares for $60 million sold by the underwriters using a 15 percent over-allotment option. The offering was underwritten by Keefe, Bruyette & Woods and Sandler O'Neill + Partners LP.

In all, the bank has raised nearly $1 billion of equity capital in three successful stock offerings since the fourth quarter of 2008. It previously raised $115 million in October 2008 and $380 million in April 2009.

"Our third successful stock offering in 12 months caps a year of tremendous performance, enabling us to continue to make credit and other financial services widely available to current and prospective customers," CEO John R. Koelmel said in a news release.

"We view this very successful offering as another vote of investor confidence in our strategy, providing First Niagara with a 'super-capitalized' balance sheet that more than maintains our very healthy regulatory capital ratios while enabling us to continue to pursue our best opportunities."

The offering comes shortly after the bank completed its purchase of 57 branches from PNC Financial Services Group's National City Bank subsidiary in Western Pennsylvania, including 50 in the Pittsburgh market. That gave the bank the No. 3 retail deposit market share in the Steel City. It now has $13.2 billion in assets, with 170 branches in two states.

In July, the bank also announced plans to buy Harleysville National Corp., with $5.6 billion in assets and 83 branches, in the Philadelphia area. That deal is expected to close in February.

And the bank is moving its corporate headquarters from Niagara County to downtown Buffalo's Larkin at Exchange Building, giving it more heft and influence locally and more visibility to those outside the region who don't know where Lockport is.

The bank's success is also attracting more attention from Wall Street. Analysts from Goldman Sachs & Co. and Barclays Capital both picked up coverage of the company, with ratings of "buy" and "overweight," respectively. Overweight is a rating that indicates the stock is considered a better value than others.

jepstein@buffnews.com

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