StellarOne Will Repurchase 1.5M Shares

StellarOne Corporation

(StellarOne), announced today that its Board of Directors approved a share repurchase program authorizing 1,500,000 shares for repurchase at management's discretion. Such shares represent approximately 6% of the total shares outstanding at September 30, 2012. Commenting on the announcement, O. R. Barham, Jr., President and Chief Executive Officer said, "We are pleased to be in a position to establish a share repurchase plan that provides another mechanism to strategically deploy our capital for the benefit of our shareholders. We will continue our efforts to deploy capital through organic and acquired growth, and will repurchase stock only when it provides strong value to our shareholders." The timing and amount of share repurchase activity will be consistent with StellarOne's capital plan. It will be influenced by various factors including internal capital generation, cash dividend rates, organic growth opportunities and general market conditions. The repurchase program does not include price targets or time limits, and may be executed through open market purchases or privately negotiated transactions. It also may be suspended at any time.