Three New Orleans area mutual banks are planning to convert to stock-owned companies.
The $1.1 billion-asset Fidelity Bank and the $481 million-asset Fifth District Savings Bank have already disclosed their plans in regulatory filings, while Mutual Savings and Loan in Metairie, La., announced its planned conversion in a press release.
Fidelity created FB Bancorp for the purpose of converting. The bank plans to raise around $128 million to $173 million by selling shares at $10 each. The proceeds will be used to diversify the bank’s loan book and increase yields and expansion into the Louisiana markets of Baton Rouge and Lafayette.
Longer term, Fidelity could use proceeds to buy other banks the branches.
Fifth District said it plans to raise $56 million to $87 million by selling shares in the newly formed Fifth District Bancorp. About half of the proceeds will go to the bank, with other funds being used to make a loan to the employee stock ownership program.
Some of the capital could be used to fund organic growth and “branching or acquisition opportunities should they arise,” the filing said.
Finally, the $35.8 million-asset Mutual Savings said in its release that it plans to file “the requisite regulatory applications in the near future.”
The board “believes the conversion will permit the association to better serve our customers and the communities in which we currently operate, as well as offer new products and services and possibly open an additional branch office,” Michael Hurley, Mutual Savings’ chairman, president and CEO, said in the release.