Griffin Serves as Advisor and Placement Agent to New Hampshire Thrift Bancshares, Inc. in Connection With its Private Placement of Subordinated Notes

Situation
New Hampshire Thrift Bancshares, Inc. (Nasdaq: NHTB) is a $1.5 billion asset holding company headquartered in Newport, New Hampshire, and parent of Lake Sunapee Bank, fsb, a federally-chartered savings bank that provides a wide range of banking and financial services. Subsidiaries of the bank include McCrillis & Eldredge Insurance, Inc., a full-line independent insurance agency, and Charter Trust Company, a trust services and wealth management company. The Company operates 29 offices in New Hampshire in Grafton, Hillsborough, Merrimack and Sullivan counties and 16 offices in Vermont in Orange, Rutland and Windsor counties.

The Company currently has $23 million of preferred stock issued through the Small Business Lending Fund of the U.S. Treasury, the coupon on which is scheduled to increase from 1% to 9% in first quarter 2016. Additionally, the Company has enjoyed strong organic growth of late, as it has integrated its most recent acquisitions and taken advantage of growth opportunities particularly in the southern part of its footprint. With an eye toward the ultimate redemption of its SBLF preferred stock, as well as having the capital to fund its internal growth, and the impact of the new Basel III capital standards, the Company engaged in a detailed capital planning exercise with the assistance of Griffin Financial Group to determine its capital needs.

Solution
On October 29, 2014, the Company announced the issuance of $17 million of subordinated notes to accredited investors, with Griffin Financial Group serving as placement agent. The subordinated notes bear interest at a fixed rate of 6.75%, are non-callable for five years, mature on November 1, 2024, and qualify as Tier-2 regulatory capital at the holding company.

The Company used the majority of the proceeds of this offering to redeem $15.0 million of its SBLF preferred on December 29, 2014.

Measures of Success
The Company focused on the lowest cost alternative to its shareholders for redeeming the SBLF preferred and funding its core organic growth. Griffin focused on a wide array of investors with whom to place the capital, and the transaction was oversubscribed. The placement took advantage of the favorable interest rate environment to provide New Hampshire Thrift Bancshares with the most attractive alternative to repay its SBLF preferred.

For more information on this transaction, contact Richard L. Quad, Senior Managing Director and Co-Head of Griffin’s Financial Institutions Group, at 646.254.6387.