PROVIDENCE – Bancorp Rhode Island Inc.’s victory last week over dissident shareholder PL Capital LLC is now official.
The final tally from its annual shareholders’ meeting shows that more than 63 percent of votes cast at the meeting were in favor of returning the directors recommended by the BancorpRI board, the Bank Rhode Island parent announced.
Nearly 4.2 million shares of BancorpRI common stock – almost 92 percent of common shares outstanding – were voted at the meeting, the company said. The election results were tallied and certified by Carl T. Hagberg and Associates, an independent inspector of elections.
Illinois-based PL Capital Group – the bank’s largest institutional shareholder – had sought to win seats on the board for three nominees: the investment firm’s principals, Richard J. Lashley and John W. Palmer, and Tiverton resident Daniel J. Mullane. All three attended the May 21 shareholders’ meeting at Hotel Providence. Afterward, they said they would probably seek seats on the board next year. (READ MORE)
But each BancorpRI nominee elected to the board received at least 1.2 million more votes than any of the PL Capital nominees, the bank said in its after-market announcement. That is even wider than the 1 million-vote margin reported in last year’s contest. (READ MORE)
“On behalf of BancorpRI’s board of directors and management team, we thank both our institutional and individual investors for their strong support of the board’s nominees,” said Malcolm G. Chace, the bank’s chairman, said in a statement.
Bancorp Rhode Island Inc. (Nasdaq: BARI), is the parent of Bank Rhode Island, a state-chartered, FDIC-insured institution with 16 branches in Providence, Kent and Washington counties. Additional information about BankRI and its parent company is available at bankri.com.
