First Financial Bancorp of Hamilton, Ohio, said Wednesday that it would take a fourth-quarter charge of 10 cents a share as it sells $200 million of investment securities to restructure its balance sheet.
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The $3.7 billion-asset company said it expects the sale to improve its net interest margin by 30 basis points and improve future earnings per share by up to 5 cents a year.
Along with selling the securities, First Financial plans to prepay $200 million of Federal Home Loan Bank borrowings this year. The prepayment costs would be recorded in the 2006 results.
First Financial is scheduled to release its fourth-quarter and full-year results Feb. 10.
