Bank Sells Stake in Title Company

Ameriana Bancorp, New Castle, Ind., along with joint-venture partners First Merchants Corp., Muncie, Ind., and Mutual First Financial, Muncie, has closed on an agreement to sell the assets of Indiana Title Insurance Co. to IN Title Co., a newly formed company led by current ITIC executives. Ameriana's ownership interest in ITIC is 20.94%. Ameriana expects to incur a loss of approximately $225,000 on the sale of this interest, which will be reported in its fourth quarter 2008 results. ITIC has offices in New Castle and Muncie. Jerome J. Gassen, president and chief executive of Ameriana Bancorp, said, "As part of our continued efforts to strengthen our commercial focus and reach new markets, we have made the decision to dispose of our interest in this business that is, at best, ancillary to our primary banking operations. We intend to redeploy the capital from this business to support more attractive growth opportunities in our core operations."