Investor group applies for BHC status to buy Lineage Bank in Tennessee

An investor group has applied to buy a controlling stake in Lineage Financial Network, the holding company for Lineage Bank in Franklin, Tenn..

Recap Financial Ventures, a group led by Paul Pratt Jr., Pamela Stephens, and Wesley Finch, recently applied with the Federal Reserve to become a bank holding company as part of a plan to recapitalize the $189 million-asset bank.

Lineage, stung by its ties to the now-bankrupt middleware provider, Synapse, lost $4.7 million in the first half of this year. Total bank equity capital fell by 27% over the first half of this year, totaling $9.4 million on June 30. The bank has been operating under enforcement actions from the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. and the Federal Reserve.

The investor group aims to add six directors to the holding company’s board, including Pratt, Stephens, and Fince. Five new directors would join the bank’s board.

The group also plans to rebrand Lineage to emphasize the bank’s “strong roots in the local community and a new, rebounding future” that includes the new capital, new directors, and “the proposed future addition of talent to the business operations.”

Recap aims to complete the acquisition by Nov. 30.