Republic First Bancorp (NASDAQ: FRBK) stock is up 17% premarket. FRBK stock seems to be rising on the idea that they're finally going to have their shareholder meeting - in October. This might seem like a long time but then there's been a certain delay already.
Republic First Bancorp needs to be distinguished from First Republic Bank. As we note there FRCB is bust, properly bankrupt, and isn't coming back. Trading in the shares there with any expectation of a return to equity is a fool's game. Fun speculation, of course, but the long term outcome is not in doubt. Republic First is not bust - or at least not yet it's not. It has been suffering from not doing very well but that's a bank going slowly, not fast. Republic First: “Republic First Bancorp, Inc. operates as the holding company for Republic First Bank that provides a range of credit and depository banking products and services to individuals and businesses. It accepts consumer and commercial deposit, checking, interest-bearing demand, money market, savings, sweep, and individual retirement accounts, as well as certificates of deposit. “ It's a small to medium sized and entirely standard retail bank. Without the huge concentration of depositors among the very wealthy (and so above the $250k FDIC insurance limit etc) and so shouldn't have those FRCB style problems. On the other hand it really just hsan;t been doing well and there's a certain desire to get rid of the board and start over.
Republic First Bancorp stock price from NASDAQ
The issue here might be clearer to those who follow the London market: “Republic First Bancorp, doing business as Republic Bank, is a Philadelphia-based bank founded in 1988. In 2008, the bank shifted from commercial banking to retail banking. In 2016, the bank named Commerce Bank founder Vernon Hill as chairman. As of July 2016, Republic Bank operated 20 locations in Pennsylvania and New Jersey.” Vernon Hill left Commerce Bank under something of a cloud.
He also founded Metro Bank in London and left there under something of a cloud. Partly because the bank had got its reserve ratios wrong, partly because more of the operating profit seemed to end up with Hill and family than some thought wise (his wife did the bank's design work for example). An excellent marketeer, Hill, but beyond that opinion is mixed.
The jump in Republic First now, in that FRBK stock, is because the long awaited shareholder meeting might clear up some of the issues like that. Hill is already gone, but perhaps other areas of the bank need a clean out too?
