BNC in N.C. to Buy Back Tarp Shares from Third Parties

BNC Bancorp  (BNCN) in Thomasville, N.C., plans to buy back its Troubled Asset Relief Program shares from investors who bought them in a Treasury Department auction last summer.

The $3.1 billion-asset company said Friday that it has received regulatory approval and will purchase the shares on April 29 for their par value plus any unpaid dividends.

BNC will buy the shares from third parties who acquired them in an auction in August. BNC received $31.3 million through the program in December 2008, and the Treasury received $28.4 million for the shares.

BNC will fund the purchase with cash and through a $30 million term loan from Synovus Bank (SNV) that it expects to close Friday, it said.

“The ability to use debt at the holding company level to redeem these preferred shares reduces BNC's cost of capital, is not dilutive to common shareholders and does not impact the capital ratios at the bank level,” said BNC Chief Operating Officer Richard Callicutt.

BNC’s subsidiary, the Bank of North Carolina, had a Tier 1 leverage ratio of 9.7% and a total risk-based capital ratio of 13.9% as of Dec. 31, according to the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp.

BNC was advised in the repurchase by Banks Street Partners and the law firm Womble, Carlyle, Sandridge & Rice, both based in Atlanta, it said.

BNC said this month that Callicutt will succeed W. Swope Montgomery as CEO after Montgomery’s retirement in June.

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