Treasury to Auction Shares in Five More Banks

The Treasury Department will auction its stakes in five more banks — including shares it owns in an Illinois bank that it previously failed to sell — as it continues to wind down the Troubled Asset Relief Program.

The agency said Wednesday that it will auction its preferred stock in Alpine Banks of Colorado in Glenwood Springs; First Community Financial Partners in Joliet, Ill.; F&M Financial in Clarksville, Tenn.; and F & M Financial in Salisbury, N.C. The modified Dutch auctions will be offered to certain institutional buyers and investors. 

Although the Treasury was able to sell its Series C preferred stock in First Community in July, it could not find a buyer for its Series B preferred stock after it received insufficient bids.

The department said in a separate release on Wednesday that it would also sell its preferred stock in Yadkin Valley Financial (YAVY) through a public modified Dutch auction. All of the auctions are scheduled for Monday.

The department has been aggressively working to end Tarp by auctioning off the shares it still owns in roughly 300 banks. Through five auctions that involved 37 banks, it has recouped roughly $1.2 billion of the $1.3 billion it initially invested in those banks. It also recently sold $381.5 million of preferred shares it held in M&T Bank Corp. (MTB).

Besides First Community, Treasury previously also did not find buyers for shares in two other banks, First Western Financial in Denver and Guaranty Federal Bancshares in Springfield, Mo.