MINNEAPOLIS -- Metropolitan Financial Corp. said its board authorized management to repurchase up to 5% of the company's outstanding stock in the open market and in other transactions through the first quarter of 1994.
The stock will be used by the Minnesota savings bank company for employee benefit plans as well as to replenish shares issued in a recent acquisition.
The company's shares rose 87.5 cents to $15 on the news.
Norman Jones, Metropolitan's chairman and chief executive, said the company is exploiting "the recent price of our stock" to purchase shares below book value, an activity he termed "the best and most prudent use of our capital in this market."
As of June 30, the company's book value was $14.96 a common share. Metropolitan operates more than 190 offices in the upper Midwest and Arizona.
