GRAND RAPIDS —
Van Singel took the position at United Bank on July 31. He said his responsibility will be to spearhead the establishment of United’s
and work the southern district of the bank’s trade area. Van Singel said the project site plan awaits the township’s approval but that the new branch is tentatively scheduled to open in spring 2007. He told the Business Journal he was attracted to the position with United just for the chance to get back into banking.
“I was a competitor of Art (Art
Johnson said in a prepared statement that Van Singel is an ideal addition for the bank’s community banking philosophy.
“John Van Singel is and accomplished community banker,” Johnson said. “He lives in the
The Van Singel family has held shares in OAK Financial Corp. for more than 50 years.
In December 2004, Willard and
Seven months later, on July 26, 2005, the Van Singel family entered into an agreement with Royal Securities Inc. to sell all of the shares of the company beneficially owned by Willard Van Singel,
According to the original agreement, the total value of the consideration they would receive would be no less than $58 per share based upon 2,034,691 shares outstanding and adjusted on a proportionate basis for changes in the number of shares outstanding from time to time.
Broker Greg Dodgson of Royal Securities’
“Whoever would buy this stock would probably be interested in buying the whole bank,” Dodgson said. “The $54 price would be a hard number for anybody at OAK Financial to refuse if the other shareholders are given the right to be bought out at $54 per share like the Van Singels. If someone doesn’t come in and show interest, I would probably advise them to terminate the agreement. The stock is still in their names, and they have the voting rights; it’s their property. I just have the stock tied up in a lock-up agreement for a period of time.”
“There are all sorts of other possibilities though; there are contractual agreements between employees and companies and different things can play into those,” Heine said. “We require officers, directors and 10 percent holders of securities in a company to disclose their holdings and changes in their holdings as long as they are affiliated with the company, so there might be some disclosure requirements in that type of a situation.”
Jose Infante, former president and CEO of Muskegon-based Community Shores Bank Corp., which he helped found, continues to hold shares of
“I believe my upside is some time in the future,” Infante said. “I have options to exercise, which I’m going to exercise. I have to hold those for a certain amount of time for tax reasons. So part of my deal is really an issue of taxes. For me to sell my stock right away would hit me tax-wise, and I don’t want to do that. My thought process is that, going forward, either the stock will do fine or the bank will be sold and I’ll make money that way.”
Infante said that holding onto the stock is not an expression of his confidence in
“It’s more a question of risk level,” he noted. “Banks don’t go under. I need to hang onto my shares for a certain amount of time so when I get ready to sell them, I have that capital gains issue out of the way. I’m just doing what any investor would do.”