Are there any nooks and crannies in the financial sector that look attractive?
I spend the most time looking for potential mergers and acquisitions. But you don’t want the targets–the targets are sick. If you sift through all of the secondary offerings, most banks are raising capital for two reasons. In some instances, these are defensive moves to shore up leaky balance sheets, but most are raising excess capital to go on the offensive. 1st United Bancorp (NSDQ: FUBC) down in Florida-based is one example. I don’t like the symbol, but I like management a lot. The stock traded on the pink sheets as recently as two months ago and had a $40 million market cap. But management leveraged its reputation to raise $70 million, much of which will be used to buy broken banks in Florida. The bank will add tremendous value with each incremental transaction it makes. CenterState Banks (NSDQ: CSFL) is another Florida bank on my radar. Like 1st United, it’s raised a bunch of money and is looking for distressed acquisitions in its own backyard. FDIC-assisted deals not only raise
