French banking giant BNP Paribas SA is cutting its stake in Honolulu-based First Hawaiian Inc. via an underwritten public offering.

San Francisco-based BancWest Corp., a subsidiary of BNP Paribas, is offering 25,000,000 common shares of First Hawaiian. Underwriters have a 30-day option to purchase up to an additional 3,750,000 shares at the public offering price. First Hawaiian will neither issue any shares in connection with the offering nor will it receive any proceeds from the offering.

According to a registration statement, the proposed maximum offering price, estimated solely to compute the registration fee, is $34.21 per share, reflecting proposed maximum aggregate gross proceeds of $983.5 million upon full subscription of the offering and exercise of the underwriters' option.

In 2016, First Hawaiian was spun off from BNP Paribas, which owns 115,209,620 First Hawaiian shares, or an 82.6% stake. Full subscription of the offering will reduce BNP Paribas' stake in First Hawaiian to 90,209,620 shares, or 64.6%. If the underwriters' option is fully exercised, BNP Paribas' remaining stake will be 86,459,620 shares, or 62.0%.

Goldman Sachs & Co., BofA Merrill Lynch, J.P. Morgan, BNP Paribas, Barclays, Citigroup, Credit Suisse and Deutsche Bank Securities are joint book-running managers and underwriters for the proposed offering. Keefe Bruyette & Woods is lead manager and underwriter.