Center Bancorp sets subscription price on offering

Center Bancorp sets $7 per share subscription price on share offering

• On 3:01 pm EDT, Thursday September 3, 2009

UNION, N.J. (AP) -- Center Bancorp Inc. on Thursday set a subscription price of $7 per share for a previously announced share offering, representing about a 19 percent discount to its current trading price.

Center Bancorp is the parent company of Union Center National Bank, a commercial lender. The New Jersey company is offering up to about $11 million of its common shares to shareholders of record as of Sept. 1.

Under the proposed offering, each shareholder will receive one non-transferable subscription right for each share of Center Bancorp common shares owned on the record date.

Each right will entitle the holder to buy 0.1217 shares of Center Bancorp common shares at the subscription price of $7 per share. The subscription rights will be exercisable until 5 p.m. EDT on Sept. 30.

Center Bancorp shares fell 9 cents to $8.41 in afternoon trading on Thursday. Its shares closed at $8.50 on Wednesday.