In Brief: N.Y. Investor Loses Bid For Board Seat in Calif.

A dissident shareholder who had been pushing for the sale of Foothill Independent Bancorp has lost his bid for a seat on the board of the Glendora, Calif., company.

Matthew Lindenbaum, managing director of the New York hedge fund Basswood Financial Partners, received just 23% of the vote at Foothill's annual meeting last week. Basswood owns 9.34% of Foothill's stock.

Mr. Lindenbaum, who had nominated himself to Foothill's board this spring, has been urging the company to sell since November, complaining of its financial performance.

He was traveling and could not be reached for comment on the vote.

All three of Foothill's board nominees were reelected to two-year terms.

They drew strong support from Foothill's other institutional investors.

"We are proud to see the local and institutional support in favor of management," said Donna Miltenberger, chief operating officer at $468 million-asset Foothill. "The manner that Basswood recommended to sell the bank was not the way to maximize shareholder value."

In Securities and Exchange Commission documents filed last week, Mr. Lindenbaum said Foothill could fetch as much as $26 a share in a sale, or about 3.25 times book value.

That's equal to the premium in recently announced deals for two other Southern California community bank companies-Orange (Calif.) National Bancorp and Valley National Bancorp of El Cajon, Calif.

Foothill's stock was trading at $13.50 at midday Friday.

The company operates 11 branches in Los Angeles, San Bernardino, and Riverside counties.

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