Despite continued rejection, North Fork Bancorp, a Long Island-based banking company looking for acquisitions, is still in hot pursuit of neighboring Sunrise Bancorp.
Since January, the $2.7 billion-asset North Fork has been trying to acquire Farmingdale, N.Y.-based Sunrise, according to documents the Mattituck bank filed this week with the Securities and Exchange Commission. And at least twice it has been rebuffed.
The most recent effort came on April 4, when North Fork president and chief executive John Adam Kanas called Sunrise chairman Sebastian A. Albrecht, asking to meet to discuss a merger. But Mr. Albrecht refused to meet with Mr. Kanas the very next day.
Mr. Kanas would not comment beyond the SEC documents.
North Fork has made its presence felt, however. It has been gobbling up Sunrise stock, raising its stake to 5.7% since it received approval from the Federal Reserve Board on March 29 to acquire up to 9.9% of the thrift's stock, according to SEC documents.
North Fork's efforts began several months ago. On Jan. 23, it wrote Sunrise officials offering to pay about 136% of the $567.5 million-asset thrift's book value in a cash deal. Sunrise had a Dec. 31 book value of $19.34.
In the letter from Mr. Kanas, North Fork proposed to negotiate with the board to keep key officers, particularly Sunrise president and chief executive Joseph A. Melillo. Mr. Kanas even offered at that time to meet with the Sunrise board to discuss the proposal.
North Fork also left open the possibility that the offer could be raised if a due diligence review "indicates greater value than is currently evident by a review of your published reports," Mr. Kanas wrote.
But Sunrise officials rejected North Fork's appeal in a Feb. 16 letter from Mr. Melillo.
"It wasn't acceptable," Mr. Melillo said in an interview. "I think we could add more value than he can to our shareholders and to our franchise."
The offer will remain on the table, however, and North Fork officials will continue efforts to meet with Sunrise directors, according to the SEC documents.
