August 4, 2009 (FinancialWire) — Columbia Banking System, Inc. (NASDAQ: COLB) plans to offer and sell around $80 million of common stock in an underwritten public offering. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods, Inc. is serving as lead bookrunning manager.

The company plans to grant the underwriters a 30-day option to purchase up to an additional 15% of the shares sold to cover over-allotments.

Columbia plans to use the net proceeds from this offering for general corporate purposes, more specifically to support growth and the bank’s capital needs.

Tacoma, Washington-based Columbia Banking System is the holding company of Columbia State Bank, a Washington state-chartered commercial bank.

With the company’s 2007 acquisitions of Mountain Bank Holding and Town Center Bancorp and the 2008 internal merger of its Bank of Astoria subsidiary into Columbia State Bank, Columbia Banking System has 51 banking offices in Pierce, King, Cowlitz, Kitsap, Thurston and Whatcom counties in Washington State, and Clackamas, Clatsop, Tillamook and Multnomah counties in Oregon.

Included in Columbia State Bank are former branches of Mt. Rainier National Bank, doing business as Mt. Rainier Bank, with five branches in King and Pierce counties.

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