First Community buys back $3.78 million preferreds, exits TARP

By Jennifer Chiou

New York, Aug. 30 - First Community Corp. announced the repurchase of $3.78 million of its preferred stock from the Treasury through a modified Dutch auction process.

The Treasury sold $11.35 million of the series T fixed-rate cumulative perpetual preferreds at $982.83 each for total proceeds of $11 million.

The remaining 7,570 preferred shares were purchased in the same Dutch auction by third-party investors unrelated to First Community, also at $982.83 per share, which marks the highest price paid to date for a company in the Treasury auctions of shares in the Capital Purchase Program/Troubled Asset Relief Program, the company said in a news release.

The auction was held Aug. 24 and settled Aug. 29.

"The repurchase of these shares represents an important next step for our company in the implementation of our capital plan. We were pleased we were granted permission from our regulator to bid on all of our outstanding shares. We understand that very few banks have been approved to do this," president and CEO Mike Crapps said in the release.

The Lexington, S.C.-based financial holding company previously registered the shares - sold to the government under TARP - with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

First Community did not receive any proceeds from the auction.

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