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Wells Financial Corp. plans to go private by withdrawing its shares from the Nasdaq stock market.
Wells aims to delist itself by buying back about 150,000 of its outstanding shares and reducing the number of registered stockholders to fewer than the 300 required for a stock market listing.
Lonnie Trasamar, president and CEO of Wells, Minn.-based Wells Financial, said it is just too expensive to comply with the registration requirements, and a stock market listing doesn't offer enough benefits to offset those costs.
The shares will be repurchased through a "modified Dutch auction."
Under this system shareholders can offer their stock to the company for a price between $29.50 and $31.50. After the bids are in, Wells will choose the lowest price that will allow it to buy back the desired number of shares.
Wells promised to pay this set price for all shares it purchases, even if the stockholders had originally offered their shares for less than the final price.
Wells Financial is the holding company of Wells Federal Bank, a federally charted savings bank. The firm had total assets of $223.4 million as of June 30.
Shares of the firm (Nasdaq:WEFC) closed up $1, or 3.5 percent, at $29.75 in very active trading Tuesday.
bgroeneveld@bizjournals.com | (612) 288-2101
Source: Minneapolis St. Paul Business Journal
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