ASB Bancorp in Asheville, N.C., has repurchased a block of stock from funds tied to activist investor Joseph Stilwell.
The $748 million-asset company disclosed in a regulatory filing Tuesday that it bought nearly 400,000 shares of common stock from seven Stilwell-affiliated funds. ASB paid nearly $7.9 million, or $20 a share, for the stock, using cash on hand.
The company's shares closed Tuesday at $19.95 a share.
Stilwell is a well-known dissident shareholder. He unsuccessfully nominated candidates to the boards of Harvard Illinois Bancorp and Poage Bankshares in Kentucky this year. He has also successfully toppled management at several companies, including First Financial Northwest in Renton, Wash.
