The Bancorp to Acquire American Home Bank

One of the few remaining assets in the estate of American Home Mortgage Investment Corp., a Chicago-based thrift, will be sold to The Bancorp Inc., Wilmington, Del. The thrift, American Home Bank, was acquired by Melville, N.Y.-based AHM subsidiary American Home Mortgage Holdings Inc., in October 2006 and was formerly known as Flower Bank FSB. The United States Bankruptcy Court for the District of Delaware approved the deal on May 15; while American Home Mortgage Investment and American Home Mortgage Holdings have filed for bankruptcy protection, American Home Bank has not. The Bancorp gives the purchase price as between $7 million and $11 million. Back in October 2006, American Home needed to make a $50 million recapitalization of Flower after the deal was completed. The Bancorp is the parent company of an online commercial bank. The deal provides the company with an Office of Thrift Supervision charter, which will give it a platform for national operations and support the continued growth of its prepaid card issuing and private client business lines. It will also support expansion of national deposit gathering strategies. The Bancorp expects that following payment of a potential dividend by American Home Bank to its parent, the tangible book value of American Home Bank at closing will not exceed $11 million. The deal still needs the approval of the OTS and the Federal Reserve Board.