HONOLULU, April 12, 2011 /PRNewswire/ -- Central Pacific Financial Corp. (NYSE: CPF; the "Company"), parent company of Central Pacific Bank (CPB), announced that the registration statement registering shares issued to certain investors in its private placement was declared effective today by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).  The registration statement covers the offer and sale by certain selling shareholders of up to 18,487,715 shares of common stock, no par value per share, which includes 79,288 shares underlying a warrant issued to the United States Department of the Treasury (the "Treasury").  The Company will not receive any proceeds from the sale of common shares by any selling shareholder.

As part of the Company's recapitalization plan, 32.5 million shares were sold to private investors in a private placement completed on February 18, 2011, at a price of $10 per share, and approximately 5.6 million shares were issued to the Treasury in exchange for the TARP preferred stock and accrued dividends.  The approximately 18.5 million shares were registered with the SEC as required by agreements the Company entered into with the private investors and the Treasury, and those shares may now be resold pursuant to the registration statement.  

More information is provided on the Form S-1 registration statement currently posted on the Company's website www.centralpacificbank.com in the Investor Relations section.

About Central Pacific Financial Corp.

Central Pacific Financial Corp. is a Hawaii-based bank holding company with $3.9 billion in assets.  Central Pacific Bank, its primary subsidiary, operates 34 branches, over 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.

Cautionary Statement

This press release shall not constitute an offer to sell or the solicitation of an offer to buy the securities, nor shall there be any sale of the 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.

Forward-Looking Statements

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 Consent Order by the FDIC 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 Securities and Exchange Commission filings, including the Company's 2010 Form 10-K.  The Company does not update any of its forward-looking statements.

SOURCE Central Pacific Financial Corp.