Another shot has been fired in the ongoing feud between an investor group and Seacoast Banking Corp. of Florida in Stuart.
New York-based CapGen Financial sent the $4 billion-asset company a letter expressing disappointment with the
John Sullivan, managing director of CapGen, which owns roughly a 20% stake in the bank, wrote
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Seacoast Banking in Florida is facing pressure from CapGen, its biggest investor, to generate better returns or sell to a larger institution.
May 11 -
Seacoast CEO Dennis Hudson, in a letter to the company's biggest shareholder, touted improved performance while questioning the timing of the investor's push for a sale.
May 16 -
All five directors at Seacoast Banking Corp. of Florida in Stuart were re-elected despite a protest vote from the company's biggest investor.
May 25
Seacoast uses a form of plurality voting to elect directors. Any director who fails to receive a majority of votes cast must submit a resignation, which the board's corporate governance committee can refuse to accept.
In this case, all the nominees received a majority of the votes cast. However, CapGen pointed out that three of the five nominees had narrow victories. These results demonstrated that there is "profound dissatisfaction" among the company's shareholders and proved that "real change" was needed, Sullivan wrote.
"We trust that the board and management will reflect carefully on the results of the annual meeting and move with a sense of urgency to bring Seacoast's performance, key financial metrics and governance into line with well-run industry peers," wrote Sullivan, echoing another letter sent to the board before the vote.
Dennis Hudson 3rd, Seacoast's chairman and chief executive, responded Thursday with a
The feud was sparked when CapGen submitted
In that letter, Sullivan also called for an overhaul of the company's existing governance and board structure, expressing concern that five of the company's 12 directors had served on the board between 13 and 33 years.
The
Seacoast has also faced pressure from investor Basswood Capital Management, which was recently