By Staff Report Monday, November 29th, 2010

[wikichart align=”right” ticker=”PCBC” showannotations=”true” livequote=”true” rollingdate=”6 months” width=”300″ height=”245″]Santa Barbara-based Pacific Capital Bancorp said Nov. 29 that it has completed its shareholder rights offering, raising $76.4 million by selling shares of common stock at 20 cents per share.

Under the terms of the offering, legacy shareholders of record on Aug. 30 — the day before the banking company closed a $500 million recapitalization deal with Texas-based Ford Financial Fund — were able to buy common equity at the same 20-cents-a-share price as the private equity firm.

The offering expired on Nov. 19 and its proceeds will be used for general corporate purposes, Pacific Capital said. The banking company, which operates Santa Barbara Bank & Trust and First Bank of San Luis Obispo, said it sold more than 382 million shares of common stock through the offering.

The announcement of the rights offering raise follows an announcement by Pacific Capital on Nov. 24 that it would execute a non-dilutive, 1-for-100 reverse split of its common stock on Dec. 28, bringing the number of outstanding shares down from 5 billion to 50 million. The split is intended to bring Pacific Capital’s stock price back above $1 following a warning by the Nasdaq stock exchange in October that it would be delisted if it didn’t raise its share price by April.

Pacific Capital shares closed at 29 cents on Nov. 29, up 3.6 percent.

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