Westlake Village-based First California Financial Group, parent of First California Bank, said March 17 it plans to sell 10 million shares to raise capital to fund potential acquisitions and new customers.

A per-share price has not been set for the stock offering, which is being underwritten by investment bank Keefe, Bruyette & Woods. At First California’s closing price of $3.07 on March 17, a 10-million-share offering would yield roughly $30 million.

The capital raise is the third announced by a tri-county bank in the past month.

On Feb. 17, California Oaks State Bank, a community business bank in Thousand Oaks with a branch in Simi Valley, said it will raise as much as $10 million as part of a new strategy to snap up the assets of failed banks. On March 12, Paso Robles-based Heritage Oaks Bank silenced federal regulators’ concerns about its capital levels when it announced it was raising $60 million in new securities.

In a release, First California said it might use new funds to support internal growth or as a capital buffer in buying up whole banks or failed banks.

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