CPB buys back 300,000 shares

Star-Bulletin staff

CPB Inc. said today it has repurchased 300,000 shares of its own common stock from Sumitomo Bank Ltd.

The price was not disclosed but at today's trading price of about $23 it would have been worth about $6.9 million.

CPB, the parent of Central Pacific Bank, said the change leaves Sumitomo holding 10.38 percent of CPB's outstanding common shares, down from 13.16 percent.

Sumitomo, which bought into the company when Central Pacific Bank was formed in 1954, is no longer CPB's largest shareholder. That rank now belongs to the company's employee stock ownership plan, with just under 11 percent.

CPB, which had two stock repurchase programs last year and bought 12 percent of its shares, last week announced a third, in which directors authorized the company to buy back as many as 485,000 shares, or about 5 percent, when market conditions are favorable.