RESTON, Va.–(BUSINESS WIRE)–WashingtonFirst Bankshares, Inc. (the “Company”) (NASDAQ: WFBI), today announced that it has redeemed $4.4 million (4,449 shares), or 25% of the $17.8 million outstanding Series D Preferred Stock (“Series D Preferred Stock”) that had been issued to the Secretary of the Treasury (“Treasury”) in August 2011 through the Company’s participation in the Small Business Lending Fund (“SBLF”). The shares were redeemed at their liquidation value of $1,000 per share plus accrued dividends through August 14, 2014, for a total redemption price of $4,454,434.67.
The partial redemption was approved by the Company’s primary federal regulator and funded with the Company’s surplus capital. After the partial redemption, the Company and its wholly-owned banking subsidiary, WashingtonFirst Bank, will continue to have capital in excess of minimum regulatory requirements and at levels that qualify as “well capitalized” under applicable regulatory guidelines. The Company continues to have outstanding $13.3 million (13,347 shares) of Series D Preferred Stock issued through the SBLF program.
“Our participation in the SBLF Program allowed WashingtonFirst to sustain its loan growth to small business in our market area, and this partial redemption is an important step in our long-term capital strategy,” said Shaza Andersen, Chief Executive Officer of both the Company and WashingtonFirst Bank.
The Company also announced that its Board of Directors declared a cash dividend of four cents ($0.04) per share payable on October 1, 2014, to shareholders of record as of September 10, 2014. The dividend payout will be approximately $310,000 on 7.7 million shares of voting and non-voting common stock. While the Company expects to continue to declare and pay quarterly cash dividends in the future, any such dividend would be at the discretion of the Board of Directors of the Company and would be subject to applicable federal and state regulatory limitations.
“We are very pleased that our capital and earnings growth has allowed us to execute on our objective of redeeming the SBLF capital, and to declare our fourth consecutive quarterly cash dividend. The Board of Directors is committed to enhancing shareholder value and we believe the redemption of the Preferred Stock and the payment of a cash dividend is appropriate given our earnings and financial condition,” said Ms. Andersen.
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