Dream Chasers Raises Its Offer To $3.25 Per Share For 35% Of Nasdaq Listed Carver Bancorp Symbol: CARV
Dream Chasers Capital, Carver Bancorp's largest minority shareholder, encourage investors to call and email the bank to accept its improved $3.25 per share offer-an over 100% premium to the current stock price.
A public company's stock price and market capital is a reflection of how the markets sees you. It's what they think you are worth. It's an indictment of management.
Carver Bancorp, the largest African American bank in the U.S, has a stock price of $1.47 share and a market capitalization of $7 million.
Much like your favorite professional sports team, coaches and general managers are hired and fired based on their ability to deliver results. Very rarely do non-performing coaches and general managers get to keep their jobs for years if they have not delivered for the fan base.
Over the past few years, under current management, the bank has been losing money, losing deposits, over concentrated in commercial real estate and has a stock price down over 80% for many shareholders.
Management has not delivered for its fan base, namely: shareholders, depositors and the communities of color it serves. We encourage shareholders—retail and institutional—to demand a change of control.
On Oct 27, 2023, Dream Chasers sent a follow up letter to Carver that amongst many things:
- reiterated our initial $3 a share offer for a $35% stake. We have now publicly raised our offer to $3.25 per share.
- reiterated Dream Chasers and its partners' plans to bring to the bank an accomplished world class team—backed by new Capital and deposits—and who will more smartly take advantage of the bank's designation as an MDI (minority depository institution).
- offer a severance package to current management and the board to ensure an amicable change of control.
In response to our October 27th letter, the bank indicated it would discuss our latest offer internally and set up a date and time for a meeting.
While we were waiting for a date, Carver initiated an 8-K filing and press release outlining its progress and plans for growth.
Most of these plans outlined in the bank's filing are not new and have been promised for years but never executed on.
The bank's 8-K filing does nothing to address how it plans to fix three of the most pressing problems preventing it from growing, namely: turning a profit, reducing its over concentration in CRE in a work from home new world and a plan to win the deposit race against bigger rivals.
To the bank's own admission, it stated in its most recent 10-K, that "it faces strong competition within the Bank's only market, New York City, which would adversely affect profits and slow growth due to significantly larger competitors with greater financial resources."
In its 8-K filing, the bank mentions a milestone of raising $40 million in new capital since 2019. With the bank's current market capitalization, investors have seen a negative return on that $40m capital. Dream Chasers and its partners intend to be creators not destroyers of capital.
With our revised $3.25 a share offer, Carver's board of directors has a fiduciary responsibility to shareholders to act in their best interest nor self interest. We are again encouraging all shareholders, retail and institutional, to contact current management and tell them to take the Dream Chasers revised share price and severance package offer.
In light of the historical underperformance of current management and board, shareholders should continue to be vigilant in preventing any self-serving, dilutive, anti-takeover actions or enact poison-pill bylaws—to the detriment of shareholders and communities of color.
Fellow shareholders should not view our revised offer as indicative of our belief the bank's fortunes have changed—but instead is a gesture to compel the board to act and take our very generous offer.
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