Shares of the struggling PFF Bancorp in Rancho Cucamonga, Calif., soared Tuesday after the Illinois bank holding company FBOP Corp. disclosed in a Securities and Exchange Commission filing that it is seeking to increase its stake in the $4.5 billion-asset PFF.
The $14 billion-asset FBOP has applied with regulators to increase its 9.85% stake in PFF to 24.9%. The privately held FBOP said in the SEC filing that it would continue to act "as a passive investor."
FBOP is the parent of nine community banks in Illinois, California, Texas, and Arizona. Its investment subsidiary, controlled by FBOP chairman Michael E. Kelly, has acquired more than 1 million of PFF's shares in the last 60 days.
PFF's shares closed at $11.33 Tuesday, up 11.6% from Monday's close. The company, an active lender to residential developers, has lost roughly two-thirds of its value in the last six months amid concern about its deteriorating credit quality.
