BankAtlantic Shares Plunge On Rights Offering

FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. (AP) — Shares of BankAtlantic Bancorp Inc. plummeted Friday after the Florida-based bank said it was setting a subscription price for a previously announced rights offering.

The $2 per share charge will apply to the bank's offering of up to $100 million of common stock to its shareholders of record as of Aug. 24.

Shares of BankAtlantic sank $1.44, or 26 percent, to $4.05, in afternoon trading.

Under the proposed offering, shareholders will receive about 4.5 nontransferable subscription rights for each share of BankAtlantic Bancorp Class A and Class B common stock.

Each right will entitle the holder to buy one share of BankAtlantic Bancorp Class A common stock at the subscription price of $2 per share.

Alan B. Levan, BankAtlantic chairman and CEO, said in a release the rights offering "was the fairest alternative to the BankAtlantic Bancorp shareholders for raising equity. A rights offering gives our shareholders the opportunity to participate on a pro rata basis and maintain their ownership position as well as avoids the costs of an underwritten equity offering."