Vineyard National Bancorp in Corona, Calif., has promoted vice chairman Glen C. Terry to president and chief executive officer and announced plans to raise $250 million in a private placement of common stock and convertible senior secured notes.
The $2.4 billion-asset company also said it hired a chief credit officer, Lucilio Cuoto.
The executive moves, announced after the market closed Thursday, brought Vineyard into compliance with a July consent order from the Office of the Comptroller of Currency to appoint "experienced and competent" people.
Mr. Terry, who was in New York courting potential investors Friday, said in an interview that he hoped to raise the capital by the middle of next month. If that effort is not successful, Vineyard will "consider all other options," with selling being the most "realistic" one.
Vineyard has been working on raising capital for months; a less-specific deal it floated in early June fell apart about two weeks later.
At the end of June, Vineyard Bank's Tier 1 capital ratio was 8.76%, and its leverage ratio was 8.28%. But the holding company's Tier 1 capital ratio was 1.52%, and its leverage capital was 1.43%, both well below regulatory minimums.
The company had said in its second-quarter earnings report that its bank was considered adequately capitalized according to the terms of the OCC order.
Mr. Terry said he could not discuss Vineyard National's current capital levels or how much shareholder dilution the offering would create. But he said that he felt "confident" it can raise $250 million of capital and that the money would be enough to rebuild the company, which has been battered in recent quarters by bad residential real estate construction loans.
"We have done the analysis and backed into the numbers," he said. "We have gone through our loan portfolio and capital requirements. … We believe, based on what we know now, this is more than adequate to meet our need and put us in the position we need to be."
Mr. Terry joined Vineyard National as its vice chairman last month after a group of dissenting shareholders won control of the company. He has worked for a number of West Coast banking companies and was most recently the CEO of the $100 million-asset Tri-Valley Bank in San Ramon, Calif.
He said he was attracted to Vineyard because he sees an opportunity to turn the company around and build on its branch network. "To the extent that we can fix the problems, which we think we can, then we have a platform," Mr. Terry said. "It is the opportunity to build something on what will be a very solid foundation."
Vineyard National said it would use the proceeds from the capital raising to strengthen the financial position of the company and the bank, repurchase "certain" debt, trust-preferred securities, and preferred stock, and provide "a financial platform" to execute its strategic plans.
The company's shares rose 60.5% on the news Friday, to close at $1.99.
