Independent Bank returns TARP money and expands

In mid-March, BailoutSleuth noted that Independent Bank Corp., the parent of Rockland Trust Company, was thinking about returning the $78.1 million in taxpayer capital it had it borrowed from the Treasury Department just nine weeks earlier.

At that time, President Christopher Oddleifson was quoted as telling The Patriot Ledger in Quincy, Mass. that the government-imposed rules on executive compensation at banks getting money through the Troubled Asset Relief Program could make it harder for the company to retain current managers and recruit new ones.

The bank followed through on that plan and - in fact - had quite a busy month in April.

As this report filed May 8 with the Securities and Exchange Commission shows, on April 22, Independent paid $1,000 a share to buy back the 78,158 shares of preferred stock it had sold to the government. It also paid $727,000 in accrued dividends.

The bank now has the right to repurchase the ten-year warrant it gave the Treasury to purchase up to 481,664 shares of the bank's common stock at a strike price of $24.34 per share.  If it does not repurchase the warrant, the Treasury Department is required by law to liquidate it.

A couple of weeks before Independent repaid the money, it acquired Benjamin Franklin Bancorp, Inc. As of last Monday, 11 Benjamin Franklin bank branches reopened as branches of Rockland Trust.  With those additions, the bank reports that there are now more than 70 branches operating under the Rockland Trust name.

Independent also reported net income of $6.4 million for the three months ending March 31, an increase of 1.3 percent over what it earned in the first three months of 2008.