PORT ANGELES — A first-time offering of more than 10.5 million shares of First Federal stock closes today.
All stock orders and full payment must be physically received (not postmarked) by no later than 5 p.m. at First Fed’s Stock Information Center, 105 W. 8th St. in Port Angeles.
No stock order forms will be accepted at First Fed’s branches.
The Stock Information Center has order forms and other materials about the stock offer and the conversion of 91-year-old First Fed from a mutual form of organization, or depositor-owned, savings and loan to a bank owned by stockholders.
For more information, phone the center today at 844-731-2610. It opens at 10 a.m.
To keep from influencing sales, bank officials are prohibited from making any comment now about how the stock has been selling.
It was first offered last month.
Before any stock can be delivered, a majority vote of depositors and certain First Fed borrowers must approve the institution’s conversion.
They are also being asked to approve the funding of a new First Federal community foundation, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit which would give money to charities and other local community groups.
Slightly fewer than 25,000 voting member proxy cards — which represent about 42,000 First Federal accounts — were mailed by First Northwest Bancorp, the holding company for First Federal, in late November along with order forms and a prospectus on the stock.
The vote results will be announced Jan. 6 at a meeting at the Red Lion Hotel in Port Angeles.
Votes will be received up to the beginning of the meeting or, if voting online, until 2 p.m. Jan. 5.
A prospectus and stock order forms were also sent to other residents of Clallam, Jefferson and Kitsap counties, where First Federal operates banking offices, as well as to selected businesses nationwide.
Each share costs $10.
The bank requires a minimum stock purchase of 25 shares, a cost of $250, with purchases limited to 20,000 shares per person ($200,000), or 40,000 shares ($400,000) for those acting together, such as a married couple or domestic partners.
If the stock is popular, the number of shares could be increased from 10,580,000 to 12,167,000, the maximum the bank could offer, according to state and federal regulations.
The final pricing of the stock before it is publicly traded will be determined by several factors, including the number of orders received and stock market conditions in January.
The minimum amount of stock that must be sold by Tuesday is 7,820,000 shares.
If the conversion is approved, stock would go to purchasers shortly after Jan. 6, with depositors of First Federal who have had qualifying accounts since March 31, 2011, first in line.
Second would be First Fed’s employee stock ownership plan.
Third in priority would be First Fed depositors with accounts opened between April 1, 2011, and Sept. 30, 2014.
Fourth in line would be other depositors and borrowers of First Fed as of Nov. 10, 2014.
Any stock left would be sold to others in the “community offering.”
The stock would then be publicly traded on the NASDAQ Capital Market under the symbol “FNBC.”
Only those who have maintained a First Fed account on or before Nov. 10, 2014, have the right to vote.
Large account holders have more votes than those with small accounts.
There is no obligation to buy stock, and there is no obligation to vote.
Money paid for stock would be refunded if the conversion is not approved.
First Federal, which had assets of more than $795 million as of June 30, stands to gain $78 million to more than $100 million from its stock offering.
“The capital that will be raised will benefit the local economy, the bank and the community in total” by allowing the bank to expand its deposit and lending efforts, said First Fed CEO Larry Hueth.
First Federal, which began in 1923, is based in Port Angeles and has branches there as well as in Sequim, Port Townsend, Forks and Kitsap County’s Silverdale, plus a lending center in the Whatcom County city of Bellingham.
It has almost 180 employees.
