1st Mariner Bancorp in Baltimore announced another quarterly loss and the resignation of its bank president.
The $1.2 billion-asset company said late Friday that Daniel McKew has resigned as the president of the company's 1st Mariner Bank. Mark Keidel, who is the president of 1st Mariner Bancorp and the chief operating officer of both the company and the bank, succeeded McKew.
The company also reported a third-quarter loss of $8 million, compared to a $4.6 million loss a year earlier. That was in spite of a loan-loss provision that fell 49% from a year earlier, to $5 million.
The culprit this time was revenue. Net interest income fell 9% from a year earlier, to $7.1 million, while noninterest income tumbled 27%, to $7.7 million. (The company has been shrinking its balance sheet, with loans declining 12% from a year earlier, to $737 million.) Another big issue remains costs associated with foreclosed properties, including write-downs due to declining appraised values, which amounted to $3.2 million during the recent quarter.
"We still continue to face strong headwinds in the real estate market," said Edwin F. Hale Sr., the company's chairman and CEO, in a press release. "Our costs associated with foreclosed properties remain high as declining appraised values have forced us to take write downs on these assets."
First Mariner has an agreement to sell a stake in itself to Priam Capital Fund I LP in exchange for a $36.4 million capital injection, contingent on First Mariner raising an additional $123.6 million. That transaction, first struck in April, was delayed after the company was delisted from the Nasdaq on Aug. 30.
An amended agreement, reached in September, lifted a solicitation restriction, clearing the way for First Mariner pursue alternative capital-raising options.
