DCB in Ohio Plans Stock Sale

DCB Financial Corp. in Lewis Center, Ohio, is planning to raise fresh capital by issuing more stock to existing and prospective shareholders.

The $522 million-asset parent of Delaware County Bank & Trust Co., which is under orders from regulators to boost its capital ratios, has hired the investment bank Sandler O'Neill & Partners LP and the law firm Vorys Sater Seymour and Pease to help set a price for and manage the stock sale, Columbus Business First reported Monday. The sale is expected to take place in the next few months.

DCB has yet to file a prospectus for the stock offering so it is unclear roughly how much it intends to raise and what exactly it plans to do the proceeds. However, in DCB's earnings news release last month Chief Executive Ron Seiffert said that one of the bank's chief goals in 2012 is meeting regulators' requirement of increasing its Tier 1 capital ratio to 9%. At Sept. 30. the bank's ratio was 8.66%.

Seiffert, who was hired in September, also said last month that the bank plans to introduce a new commercial leasing product this quarter and intends to expand its consumer lending capabilities.

“We are developing a detailed plan to raise capital in order to address our goal of achieving a 9% Tier-1 capital ratio in 2012," Seiffert said in January. "We have already received a lot of positive feedback from current and prospective investors alike who are interested in ownership.”

Aside from raising capital, the company, which lost $2.7 million in 2011, has been trimming overhead in an effort to improve its performance. The company closed five branches and eliminated more than 30 jobs in October in moves it said would reduce expenses by roughly $1 million a year.