Alliance in Pa. to Face Board Challenge in 2014

Alliance Bancorp Inc. of Pennsylvania (ALLB) in Broomall will face a proxy challenge from activist investor PL Capital.

PL Capital, which owns about 9.2% of Alliance's common stock, stated in a letter sent last week that it intends to nominate Howard Henick to join the $436 million-asset company's board. Henick would stand for election against Alliance's candidates at next year's annual meeting.

Henick, 57, is an equity portfolio manager at ScurlyDog Capital, which specializes in community bank securities, PL Capital said in a regulatory filing. He is also a member of SD Capital Partners and a former executive director at Morgan Stanley. Henick has direct and indirect ownership of roughly 39,000 shares of Alliance common stock.

The company has drawn considerable interest from activist investors in recent years, including Stilwell Group and Clover Partners. Stilwell, which at one point controlled nearly 9.8% of Alliance's shares, disclosed in a regulatory filing last week that its members had "sold a majority" of shares in the company. Clover owns roughly 6.9% of Alliance's stock.