An activist shareholder battling an Illinois thrift holding company has nominated three candidates to its board.
The fight involves the possibility of selling $1.9 billion-asset Alliance Bancorp in Hinsdale, a western suburb of Chicago.
Citing newspaper reports speculating that Alliance was in merger talks, La Salle Financial Partners said it was seeking the board seats to prevent Alliance from accepting a lowball offer.
"We do not want the current board to conduct a 'fire sale' of Alliance Bancorp," Kalamazoo, Mich.-based La Salle said in a June 3 filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.
But Alliance has called the fear unfounded. It said in a May 19 proxy statement that its directors "don't believe a 'fire-sale' proposal is in the best interest of employees or shareholders."
In fact, Alliance contends that La Salle wants to stack the board so it can put the thrift company on the block. La Salle apparently believes that a sale "is the only way to make a profit for their investors and repay the loans they took to buy our stock," according to Alliance's proxy statement.
Five board seats will be up for grabs at Alliance's annual meeting June 23. The company owns Liberty Federal Bank in Hinsdale.
Recent surges in Alliance's stock price have fueled speculation that the company might be sold to MAF Bancorp. in Clarendon Hills, Ill. Alliance stock has climbed 30% since April 1, to $24.437 at midday Wednesday.
Stephen G. Skiba, a bank analyst at ABN Amro in Chicago, said investors have grown impatient with Alliance's performance. Last year Liberty Federal's return on assets was only about three-quarters the average for thrifts its size, according to the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp.
Factor in the trend toward consolidation, Mr. Skiba added, and the pressure for Alliance to sell is all the greater.
Still, it is far from clear who will prevail in the fight for Alliance's board, Mr. Skiba said. "It's a horse race."
