First Mariner Bank to Raise $160M

First Mariner Bancorp CEO and chairman Edwin F. Hale Sr. will step down as part of a New York investment company’s plan to take a major stake in the Baltimore banking company.

Priam Capital Fund I LP, a New York-based firm, will invest $36.4 million for as much as a 24.9 percent stake of the parent company of Baltimore’s First Mariner Bank. The deal is part of a total of $160 million the bank said Tuesday afternoon it expects to raise, which includes money from other unnamed investors.

Priam’s $36.4 million investment is conditioned on First Mariner raising the additional $123.6 million, the company said. First Mariner also plans to sell an additional $15 million in stock to its existing shareholders.

Hale, First Mariner’s founder, will step down once the deal closes. He has been offered a seat on the company’s board of directors, a move he is considering, the company said. Priam will get to approve Hale’s replacement. (POLL: What's next for Ed Hale?)

First Mariner is Baltimore’s largest independently owned bank. It has $1.3 billion in assets and 22 branches. Since 2009, it has been dogged by regulators’ request to raise money as a result of its dramatic losses on subprime mortgages during the housing slump of 2007 and 2008.

Read more: First Mariner Bank to raise $160M; Hale to step down as CEO | Baltimore Business Journal

NEWS

American Banker-MountainSeed Advisors

Problem-Assets Sales Heat Up as Capital Swells, Stigma Wanes For banks looking to sell nonperforming assets, pricing realitie...more >