BNC Bancorp Registers for Possible Tarp Exit

BNC Bancorp (BNCN) has readied itself in case the Treasury Department opts to include the High Point, N.C., company's shares in an upcoming auction of securities tied to the Troubled Asset Relief Program.

The $2.4 billion-asset company filed paperwork with the Securities and Exchange Commission last week to register the potential resale of its roughly 31,200 preferred shares and a warrant to buy about 543,000 shares of common stock that it issued to the Treasury under the Tarp. BNC received $31 million in December 2008 under Tarp.

Another North Carolina bank, Yadkin Valley Financial (YAVY), previously took this step because the Elkin company thought the shares had to be registered for resale if they were auctioned to private investors.

The Treasury has been working to aggressively wind down Tarp by auctioning off stakes in various banks. Through four auctions, it has recouped roughly $1.1 billion of the $1.2 billion it had initially invested in 32 banks. Starting this fall, the Treasury will auction off preferred shares of multiple banks that it has pooled.

W. Swope Montgomery, BNC's president and chief executive, had indicated that he was in no hurry for BNC to repay its Tarp funds, and he has declined to use private equity raised to exit the program. Instead, the company has been an aggressive consolidator in the Carolinas.

The Triangle Business Journal first reported BNC's SEC filing for the potential resale of its shares.