OmniAmerican Said to Explore Sale

OmniAmerican Bancorp, the Texas lender whose stock has more than doubled since going public in 2010, is exploring a sale, two people with knowledge of the matter said.

OmniAmerican is working with Sandler O'Neill & Partners to solicit offers, said one of the people, who asked not to be identified because the decision by the Forth Worth-based company to seek a buyer is confidential.

With 15 branches and a market capitalization of about $274 million, OmniAmerican is among mutual savings banks that went public in 2010. The shares rose 5.3 percent to $23.99 as of 10:43 a.m. in New York today, more than twice the $10 initial offering price. The lenders have to wait three years to solicit takeover offers after converting to stock ownership.

OmniAmerican had total assets of $1.32 billion and deposits of $818 million at the end of June, according to a statement last month.

Randi Mitchell, a spokeswoman for OmniAmerican, declined to comment on the potential sale of the bank as did David Franecki, a New York-based spokesman for Sandler O'Neill, which specializes in financial firms.

OmniAmerican's profit fell to $674,000 in the second quarter, down 53 percent from a year earlier, the lender said last month. The bank cited higher provisioning against bad loans and lower yields on interest-earning assets.

Among the bank's largest shareholders is Michael Price, who runs MFP Investors LLC. Price, who made his name buying shares of beaten-down lenders, owns about 4.8 percent of the bank, data compiled by Bloomberg show.

The biggest holder is Wellington Management Co. with a 10 percent stake, followed by OmniAmerican's 401(k) profit sharing and employee stock ownership plans with a combined 9.4 percent, and Sandler O'Neill's asset-management unit with 6.97 percent, according to the company's proxy statement, which cited March 28 data.

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