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COUGHLIN STOIA GELLER RUDMAN & ROBBINS LLP FILES CLASS
ACTION SUIT AGAINST HUNTINGTON BANCSHARES INCORPORATED
December 19, 2007 – Coughlin Stoia Geller Rudman & Robbins LLP (“Coughlin Stoia”) (http://www.csgrr.com/cases/huntington/) and David P. Meyer & Associates Co., LPA today announced that a class action has been commenced in the United States District Court for the Southern District of Ohio on behalf of purchasers of Huntington Bancshares Incorporated (“Huntington”) (NASDAQ:HBAN) common stock during the period between July 20, 2007 and November 16, 2007 (the “Class Period”).
If you wish to serve as lead plaintiff, you must move the Court no later than 60 days from today. If you wish to discuss this action or have any questions concerning this notice or your rights or interests, please contact plaintiff’s counsel, Darren Robbins of Coughlin Stoia at 800/449-4900 or 619/231-1058, or via e-mail at djr@csgrr.com. If you are a member of this class, you can view a copy of the complaint as filed or join this class action online at http://www.csgrr.com/cases/huntington/. Any member of the purported class may move the Court to serve as lead plaintiff through counsel of their choice, or may choose to do nothing and remain an absent class member.
The complaint charges Huntington and certain of its officers and directors with violations of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934. Huntington operates as the holding company for The Huntington National Bank (“Huntington National”), which provides retail and commercial financial products and services.
The complaint alleges that during the Class Period, defendants issued materially false and misleading statements regarding the Company’s business and financial results. Huntington had acquired more than $1.5 billion in exposure to subprime mortgages with its July 2007 acquisition of Sky Financial Group, Inc. (“Sky Financial”). As the real estate and credit markets continued to soften, defendants repeatedly assured Huntington investors that the Company had undertaken significant preparations and implemented defensive measures to weather the deteriorating real estate and credit markets. By the time Huntington closed the merger with Sky Financial, the housing and credit crisis had deepened, yet defendants continued to conceal Huntington’s growing exposure to these problems so as to not acknowledge the acquisition was a debacle so soon after it closed. As a result of defendants’ false statements, Huntington stock traded at an artificially inflated price of approximately $18 per share during much of the Class Period.
Then, on November 16, 2007, Huntington announced its fourth quarter 2007 financial results, stating that as a result of the recently announced actions of Franklin Credit Management Corporation, which had a commercial lending relationship with Sky Financial, and related deterioration in Franklin’s mortgage portfolios, 2007 fourth quarter results for Huntington were expected to include an after-tax charge of up to $300 million, or $0.81 per common share. As a result of this charge, Huntington would report a 2007 fourth quarter net loss.
On this news, Huntington’s stock dropped from $16.08 per share to as low as $14.38 per share, closing at $14.75 per share on November 16, 2007 on volume of over 10 million shares.
According to the complaint, the true facts, which were known by defendants but concealed from the investing public during the Class Period, were as follows: (a) the Company had far greater exposure to anticipated losses and defaults in its home loan portfolio, particularly with subprime debt exposure arising from Sky Financial, than it had previously disclosed; and (b) defendants’ Class Period statements about the Company’s financial results were materially false due to its failure to record timely and adequate accruals for losses on its exposure to delinquent subprime mortgages.
Plaintiff seeks to recover damages on behalf of all purchasers of Huntington common stock during the Class Period (the “Class”). The plaintiff is represented by Coughlin Stoia, which has expertise in prosecuting investor class actions and extensive experience in actions involving financial fraud.
Coughlin Stoia, a 190-lawyer firm with offices in San Diego, San Francisco, Los Angeles, New York, Boca Raton, Washington, D.C., Houston and Philadelphia, is active in major litigations pending in federal and state courts throughout the United States and has taken a leading role in many important actions on behalf of defrauded investors, consumers, and companies, as well as victims of human rights violations. Coughlin Stoia lawyers have been responsible for more than $45 billion in aggregate recoveries. The Coughlin Stoia Web site (http://www.csgrr.com) has more information about the firm.
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