Feb. 28--Shares in the Vernon-based parent of Rockville Bank sold in a recent stock offering are expected to begin trading Friday, following the completion of the community bank's reorganization into a fully public company.

Shares in the Vernon-based parent of Rockville Bank sold in a recent stock offering are expected to begin trading Friday, following the completion of the community bank's reorganization into a fully public company.

The offering for common shares in Rockville Financial Inc., announced in September, was oversubscribed and is expected to raise $171 million, the bank announced.The banking company hopes to use a portion of the proceeds for making acquisitions to build on its franchise in Hartford, Tolland and New London counties.

Existing shareholders have approved the plan of conversion and reorganization, which is expected to be completed Thursday.

The parent company of Rockville Financial and its subsidiary bank, Rockville Bank, remained a non-stock or mutual holding company when Rockville Financial went public in 2005. In that transaction, Rockville Financial MHC Inc., the mutual holding company, became the largest shareholder in Rockville Financial, and held 57 percent of the outstanding shares.

It is that ownership stake that was sold to investors in the recent offering at a price of $10 a share. After the conversion, the mutual holding company will no longer exist.

The offering was oversubscribed, with 16.8 million shares going to depositors of Rockville Bank as of June 30, 2009. Another 279,000 shares were issued to Rockville Bank's employee stock ownership plan.

Shares in Rockville Financial that are now outstanding will be converted into the right to receive 1.5167 shares of the bank's common stock. Friday, Rockville Financial shares closed at $16.07, up 32 cents.

Once the shares in the reorganized company begin trading on the NASDAQ Global Select Market, they will carry the ticker symbol "RCKBD" for the first 20 days and then revert to "RCKB