Baltimore Bank to Yield Shareholder List
BALTIMORE - Baltimore Bancorp said it has consented to release a list of shareholders to a dissident investor group.
"While we are not legally required to release the shareholder list, we are doing so because we believe it is what our shareholders would wish us to do, in addition to being the fair thing to do," said Robert F. Comstock, chairman and chief executive officer.
Letter to Dissident
John C. Haigh, president and chief operating officer, signed a letter to Edwin F. Hale Sr., head of the dissident group, promising the stockholder list as of the record date requested and the proxy cards from the last election.
Baltimore Bancorp, parent of the $2.9 billion-deposit Bank of Baltimore, attracted shareholder criticism last year when it rebuffed a takeover bid by Allied Irish Banks and its Baltimore subsidiary, First Maryland Bancorp. Harry Robinson, chairman and chief executive officer, who resisted the bid, stepped down last month after six years in the job.
Mr. Robinson was entitled to terminate his employment after failing to win reelection as chairman, and he will be compensated for the balance of his contract, which expires Jan. 31, 1994.
He was succeeded by Mr. Comstock, 55, a lawyer from Chevy Chase, Md., who founded a thrift that Baltimore Bancorp acquired in 1987.
Also last month, Mr. Hale and five other nominees of Baltimore Bancorp stockholders took seats on the board. The directors formed a committee consisting of Mr. Comstock, William A. Kroh, and M. Peter Moser, to explore a sale of the company.
"The results of the recent proxy contest make it clear that many shareholders would like to see the board consider" selling, Mr. Comstock said. "I hope that my election will signal the seriousness of our concern [about relations with shareholders] and our intention to do something about it."
