Gobbling Up Former Tarp Shares at a Ga. Bank

Colony Bankcorp in Fitzgerald, Ga., has bought back more of its former Troubled Asset Relief Program shares held by private investors.

The $1.1 billion-asset company said Thursday that it paid $5 million to redeem 5,000 shares of preferred stock. The move is expected to be immediately accretive to earnings. The company still has 9,360 preferred shares outstanding that it had originally issued to the federal government under Tarp.

"In 2017 we intend to exercise our option to redeem additional shares of the preferred stock that has a current dividend rate of 9%," CEO Ed Loomis said in a news release.

Colony in September paid nearly $3.4 million to redeem 3,661 shares of perpetual preferred stock. The company is no longer part of the Tarp program after the government auctioned off its preferred stock to various investors in 2013.

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