Glacier Bancorp raises millions with stock offering

Kalispell-based Glacier Bancorp Inc. has raised millions in capital with a common stock offering.

“We went public to raise capital and we were successful,” said Don Cherry, executive vice president and chief administrative officer of the regional bank holding company that is the parent company of Glacier Bank.

Cherry said the company issued 10.3 million more shares of stock to raise a net amount of $145 million. The stock was offered at $14.75 per share.

The sale of the shares will settle Monday, with a “greenshoe” option of 1.3 million shares open to underwriters for 30 days, according to Michael J. Blodnick, Glacier Bancorp president and chief executive officer.

“We’re going to use the proceeds to grow our subsidiary banks,” Cherry said. In addition, the new funds will allow Glacier Bancorp to be more active in selective FDIC-assisted deals or acquisitions within the company’s existing market areas and to consider internal growth opportunities.

Blodnick said the secondary offering was prompted in part by the recent closures of banks around the country.

The FDIC lists 37 bank closures in 2010, seven of those in the Northwest. With the extra capital raised from the stock offering, Blodnick said, the company will have the ability to bids on some of those closed banks.

In November 2008, the company earned $94 million in net proceeds on a secondary stock offer.

Since then, it has acquired the Bank of the San Juans in Durango, Colo., and First National Bank and Trust in Powell, Wyo.

Glacier Bancorp provides commercial banking services in 60 communities in Montana, Idaho, Utah, Washington, Wyoming and Colorado. It conducts its operations primarily through 11 community bank subsidiaries throughout those states. It first went public in 1984.

A Web site for the company lists its total assets at $6.191 billion and stockholders’ equity of $686 million.