Atlantic Coast Federal Corp. in Waycross, Ga., announced after the stock market closed Wednesday that it cancelled its stock offering due to weak demand for its shares.
The $915 million-asset Atlantic Coast had planned to become a fully public company by selling the 63.8% stake owned by its mutual holding company. It expected to sell between 11.5 million and 15.5 million shares at $10 each, but said Wednesday that it fell short and would return to prospective investors the subscriptions received, with interest.
“Market conditions for bank and thrift stocks…have changed significantly since we began the stock offering process seven months ago,” Robert Larison, Atlantic Coast’s president and chief executive officer, said in a news release. “The ongoing problems in the residential mortgage market continue to depress the securities market for many financial institutions.”
Atlantic Coast is the latest thrift to either cancel or postpone its stock offering until conditions improve. Just last week, two Baltimore thrifts terminated sales of their shares and said they would return any funds raised to date.
