Joseph Stilwell Discloses Stake in Sugar Creek in Illinois

Joseph Stilwell has found yet another bank to pressure.

The activist investor disclosed in a regulatory filing last week that he has taken a 6.9% stake in Sugar Creek Financial (SUGR) in Trenton, Ill. Stilwell said in his filing that his investment firm hopes "to work with existing management and the board... to maximize shareholder value."

Stilwell typically pushes companies to pay higher dividends, repurchase more common stock or explore the possibility of selling to another bank.

"We oppose adding a branch until the issuer has consistently earned a normalized return on equity and until the stock trades above book value," Stilwell added in his filing. "We do not believe the value of the issuer's assets is adequately reflected in the current market price of the issuer's common stock."

The $87 million-asset Sugar Creek earlier this month completed its second-step conversion from a mutual holding company to a stock-owned company, raising around $3.7 million.