Western Liberty Bancorp to repurchase outstanding shares

Western Liberty Bancorp Inc., the holding company for Service1st Bank of Nevada, said Friday it would spend more than $2 million to buy back up to 5 percent of its outstanding shares over the next year.

"We believe our stock is an attractive investment in light of our strong capital position," Western Liberty Chairman Michael Frankel said. "Share repurchases represent an efficient way to utilize capital."

Frankel said Western Liberty's current market price "is a significant discount to tangible book value and under cash per share."

The program will buy back 750,000 shares of the approximately 15 million outstanding shares. The buyback was expected to cost about $2.2 million.

Shares of Western Liberty lost 5 cents, or 1.76 percent, to close Friday at $2.67 on the Nasdaq Global Market.