TIB sale cost taxpayers $24.8M

The new owners of TIB Financial Corp. got a $24.7 million discount from the U.S. Treasury when the bank was sold in October, recently issued Treasury documents show.

When North American Financial Holdings Inc. bought TIB Financial for $175 million on Oct. 1, they received 37,000 shares of TIB preferred stock, along with other equity (e.g., common stock). Treasury documents show NAFH paid $12.2 million to obtain those preferred shares — roughly two years after the Treasury paid $37 million to acquire them in the first place.

The discount was 67%, according to a report issued by SNL Financial.

To be sure, such deals with the Treasury are not rare. Toronto-Dominion Bank, buyers of the South Carolina-based South Financial Group Inc., received a 62% from the Treasury on their preferred stock buyback, the SNL report shows. And North Carolina-based Bank of Currituck redeemed its preferred shares at a greater than 50% discount.

Executives at TIB Financial could not be reached for comment on Thursday.