With its survival on the line, CIB Marine Bancshares Inc. in Pewaukee, Wis., said it is willing to extend the deadline for investors to vote on a proposed restructuring of its trust-preferred securities.
The current deadline for investors to send in their votes is April 10. In a Securities and Exchange Commission filing last week, the $888 million-asset company warned that it could fail if the investors reject its offer to convert $98.6 million of trust-preferreds to $94.9 million of preferred stock.
CIB Marine has been deferring payments on its trust-preferred securities for five years, the maximum allowed.
It said in February that it lacks enough cash on hand to resume making the payments.
Two of its regulatory capital ratios are below the thresholds for it to be considered well capitalized. But if the trust-preferred holders ratify the proposal, CIB Marine would return to well-capitalized status.
John P. Hickey Jr., CIB Marine's president and chief executive officer, said in a press release issued last week that the company has had encouraging discussions with several trust-preferred holders but that it is too soon to tell how the vote will turn out.
"Because of the monumental impact to us of the outcome of the consent solicitation," he said, the company has delayed filing its annual report "so that we can hopefully provide more context as to where the company has been and where it is going."
It expects to file the report by April 15.
The company said last week that it expects to report a net loss of $34.4 million for 2008, about two and a half times the previous year's loss.
The increase was largely attributable to a $15.7 million provision for loan losses.
CIB Marine and its auditors have concluded that the trust-preferred debt and the losses "raise substantial doubt" about the company's ability to continue as a going concern, it said.
