Small Bank News Roundup $PVBC $KRNY $BFFI $EBC

Last week, we went heavy on small banks, with a new post every single day. It looks like that may be set to continue, because as we look around the market, there's hardly anything more interesting than "asset heavy" companies: banks, land companies, and energy/resource companies. Make sure you are reading the Oddball Stocks Newsletter if you want to come on this journey with us.

We saw a Tweet from @colarion with more bank share cannibals,

$PVBC announces repurchase at 68% of tangible and $KRNY announces plan at 77%. Some of these are like candy from a baby. And certainly better than owning treasuries or 3% rate owner-occ CRE.

— Colarion (@colarion) October 19, 2020

Phil Timyan tweeted about a voluntary liquidation at a small bank, BFFI:

Better eons late than never.
Ben Franklin Financial $BFFI Announces Plan for Distribution of $10.35 per Share to Stockholders in Connection with Its Voluntary Plan of Dissolution and Complete Liquidation | Business Wire https://t.co/fXHILcM3Dt

— Phil Timyan (@TimyanBankAlert) October 19, 2020

BFFI was renamed "Ben Franklin Bank of Illinois" in 1998, but it had been founded in 1893 as "Casmir Pulaski Building & Loan". The demutualization was in 2006 (1st step) and in 2015 (2nd step).

We also saw a Chris DeMuth post on Seeking Alpha about the Eastern Bancorp demutualization (conversion):

Want to know what I really think? It is a phenomenal bank. It is the highest quality mutual to ever convert (and I love mutual conversions, so this is the highest of praise). This is not a sleepy thrift; it is a dynamic commercial bank with the industry's best deposit franchise. Cost of deposits is 0.11% at the end of the second quarter -- that's next to nothing. Their non-interest income is consistently around 30% of revenues. It isn’t boom and bust mortgage; it is from stable sources. They can make a lot of money in a zero interest rate/flat yield curve environment. They operate in arguably the best market in the country. They are one of the most conservative underwriters. Had it not been for Covid, this conversion would have cost over 85% of TBV and opened at 105%-110% of TBV. Its extreme cheapness was due to a perfect storm. That storm could pass.

If you are interested in banks below TBV, you will not want to miss the upcoming November Issue (#32) of the Oddball Stocks Newsletter. We recently lowered the price of some sample back Issues if you want to give it a try.