Wellesley Bank is moving ahead with plans for an IPO, issuing a letter last week to customers that offers them a chance to buy stock for $10 per share if the public offering plan is approved by depositors at a Dec. 21 meeting (up to 2.76M shares will be sold). The 100-year-old bank justifies going public by explaining that it needs capital to allow for future lending and operational growth, among other things (like paying for printing and distribution of the 100-plus page prospectus mailed to customers?).
The bank, which has $264.7M in assets and plans to expand from its current two locations to a third one at 29 Washington St., in Q1, 2012, has filled its prospectus with all the usual goodies, including how much its bigshots make. CEO Thomas Fontaine must be doing a bang-up job — he had total compensation of $370K in 2010. The bank’s directors, many from the Wellesley business community, received $21K-plus apiece last year… and they along with Wellesley Bank’s execs could be eligible to buy tens of thousands of shares via the IPO.
The bank plans to set up a charitable foundation… if the IPO goes through.
Wellesley has become a banking hotbed, with First Republic Bank opening a branch one of these days at the old Blockbuster Video space (it might not be the First Republic Bank if it takes any longer…), Brookline Bank opening a branch next to Whole Foods and First Commons Bank making its debut in town earlier this year.
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