The war to replace the Honolulu Bank is heating up on Bishop Street

The former president and chief executive of Bank of Hawaii is increasing his bid to acquire Honolulu’s Territorial Savings Bank in an attempt to thwart a pending merger with Hope Bancorp Inc. based in Los Angeles, persuading shareholders to vote against the deal next month.

Meanwhile, the territorial authorities are not giving up, claiming that the proposal from Allan Landon’s Blue Hill Advisers is not as good as it seems.

Landon, who was chief executive of Bank of Hawaii from 2004 to 2010, is promising a bonus over the deal proposed by Hope. On Thursday, Landon’s Blue Hill raised its cash offer to $12.50 a share from $12 and calculated it to represent a 27% premium over Hope’s stock swap value of $9.87 a share. Territory shares closed at $10.36 on Thursday.

“This increase makes our offer even more attractive,” Landon said in a press release. The announcement included a link to a new website that Blue Hill had created “to inform interested parties” and a 29-page presentation outlining Blue Hill’s offering to investors.

“Shareholders recognize the superiority of our offer and want Territorial to partner with us,” Blue Hill managing member Jason Blumberg added in a press release. He did not respond to a request for comment.

Blue Hill’s campaign to thwart the Hope takeover includes asking shareholders who voted for the deal to change their votes and instructions on how to do so.

“Shareholders who have already voted FOR the Hope merger but who wish to change their vote may still do so prior to the October 10 Special Meeting of Territorial Stockholders by following the vote change instructions described in Hope’s prospectus filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission on 22 August 2024.” – says Blue Hill in a press release on Thursday.

“Highly Speculative”

However, Territorial’s board maintains its commitment to the Hope deal announced in April.

“The unsolicited letter from Blue Hill claims to provide a nominally higher purchase price, but there are significant factors that make the proposal highly uncertain and inferior to the merger agreed with Hope,” Allan Kitagawa, president, CEO and president of Territorial, said in a statement . statement. “The Territorial Board has carefully considered this proposal twice and, after considering the views of independent legal and financial advisors, the Board has rejected the proposal.

“Compared to the Hope merger, where we have an experienced buyer and a fully negotiated merger agreement, all required regulatory filings have been filed and are pending, and no third-party financing is required, Blue Hill’s proposal is highly speculative,” Kitagawa added.

Hope, based in Los Angeles, “has been providing financial services to the nation’s largest Korean-American community for more than 40 years and is today one of the leading Asian-American banks in the United States,” its website says.

It has 48 full-service branches in California, Washington, Texas, Illinois, New York, New Jersey, Virginia, Alabama and Georgia.

Territorial was founded as a company in 1921, according to its website Kaimuki Construction and Loan Association. It has $2.0 billion in assets and 29 branches on Oahu, Maui, Kauai and Hawaii.