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Mutual holding companies appear to be fleeing the format and converting to stock companies, but Northeast Community CEO Kenneth Martinek remains a staunch supporter of the model. That may be partly because he's being sued by an activist investor who is pushing him to convert Northeast to a stock company from an MHC.
August 23 -
Second-step conversions by mutual holding companies have been in a freeze since last summer, but at least one analyst believes that the market is set to thaw.
April 16
Hamilton Bank in Baltimore has received regulatory approval to take the second step to a stock-owned company from a mutual holding company.
The $319 million-asset company said Friday that it would raise up to $37 million through a stock offering. Hamilton Bancorp, the proposed holding company, will sell between roughly 2.4 million and 3.2 million shares of common stock at $10 a share, with the potential to increase the number of shares sold by 15%, to 3.7 million.
The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency and the Federal Reserve Board issued "conditional approval" of the bank's application for the conversion earlier this month.
Depositors of the bank and the bank's employee stock ownership and 401(k) plans will have priority in the subscription offering. Shares not purchased during the subscription will be sold in a community offering with a preference for investors in Baltimore and nearby counties and then to the general public in a syndicated community offering.
The subscription and community offering will end Sept. 20.
Several other mutual holding companies have either completed the conversion or have announced plans to do so. Sound Financial Bancorp (SFBC) in Seattle
