June 5, 2009 (FinancialWire) — Fifth Third Bancorp (NASDAQ: FITB) has closed an “at the market” common equity offering program, selling 157,955,960 shares at an average price of $6.33 per share. The program was increased in size from $750 million to $1 billion.

Morgan Stanley (NYSE: MS) and Merrill Lynch & Co. (NYSE: MER) acted as joint agents in connection with the equity offering.

The company will use the net proceeds for general corporate purposes, including funding the cash premium portion of the company’s pending tender offer for series G depositary shares as well as the future repayment of the preferred stock and warrants we issued to the U.S. Department of Treasury as part of the Capital Purchase Program.

Fifth Third has committed to increase its Tier 1 common equity by $1.1 billion as a result of the Supervisory Capital Assessment Program. The company said it believes the completed $1 billion common equity offering, combined with actions on other capital alternatives that remain available to it, could potentially generate around $2 billion in aggregate Tier 1 common equity, which it said “would more than satisfy the SCAP required buffer.”

The company said it also continues to expect $1.2 billion in additional Tier 1 common equity from its pending processing joint venture transaction with Advent International, which is scheduled to close in the second quarter of 2009.

Cincinnati-based Fifth Third is a financial services company with 1,311 full-service banking centers, including 95 locations open inside grocery stores and 2,354 ATMs in Ohio, Kentucky, Indiana, Michigan, Illinois, Florida, Tennessee, West Virginia, Pennsylvania, Missouri, Georgia and North Carolina.

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