Treasury Recoups $204 Million in Tarp Auctions

The Treasury Department will receive roughly $204 million from its latest auctions selling off the preferred shares of seven financial institutions from the Troubled Asset Relief Program.

The total was 11% above the minimum prices set for the auctions, the Treasury Department said Thursday. The seven banks received $224 million from Tarp's Capital Purchase Program from December 2008 to February 2009.

The Treasury will hold several more auctions throughout the summer as it works to exit Tarp. The department also recently notified roughly 200 of the approximately 300 banks still in Tarp that it expects to package the preferred shares of multiple banks into pools and then auction those off.

The next individual auctions should be in late July with the first series of pooled auctions beginning in the fall. The Treasury previously held two other auctions where it recouped $607 million of the $692 million it had initially invested in the 13 banks.

The seven banks included in the latest auction were the $2.2 billion-asset Fidelity Southern (LION) in Atlanta; the $1.5 billion-asset Firstbank in Alma, Mich.; the $1.1 billion-asset First Citizens Banc (FCZA) in Sandusky, Ohio; the $1.5 billion-asset MetroCorp Bancshares (MCBI) in Houston; the $1 billion-asset Peoples Bancorp of North Carolina (PEBK) in Newton; the $1.3 billion-asset Pulaski Financial (PULB) in St. Louis; and Southern First Bancshares (SFST) in Greenville, S.C. At least five were expected to bid on at least a portion of their own shares, though it was not immediately clear if any or all of their offers were accepted.

The sales are expected to close Tuesday. The offering was priced through a modified Dutch auction.