Monarch Community Bancorp Inc. in Coldwater, Mich., said Wednesday that a shareholder vote to take the company private was not approved and the stock will continue to be listed on the Nasdaq.
The company needed about 1.3 million affirmative votes, but fell short by 70,000 at the time the polls closed Tuesday.
Like many small banks recently, the $283 million-asset company had sought to go private get out from under the cost of registering with the Securities and Exchange Commission. It had said in SEC filings that costs associated with being publicly traded amounted to about 1.3% of its noninterest expense last year, or $126,000.
Donald L. Denney, Monarch's president and chief executive officer, said a press release: "Our team worked tirelessly to try and obtain the required vote. While we are obviously disappointed in the results, our stockholders have spoken and we respect their decision. Our board and management remain committed to making Monarch an efficient, well-run company and we will continue to explore all prudent measures for reducing our costs."
Asked in an interview Wednesday if the company would try again, chief financial officer William C. Kurtz said, "not immediately. There is nothing in the works to go back at it anytime soon."
The company had proposed to pay $13.50 per share to stockholders who owned less than 1,000 shares, which would have reduced the number of stockholders to fewer than 300.
In heavy trading, Monarch's shares fell 6.4% Wednesday, to $11.40.
