Investors mistakenly dumped their shares in Republic First Bancorp this month – all because they mistook it for troubled lender First Republic.
Pennsylvania-based Republic First shares have fallen greater than 30% for the reason that starting of the month as fears of systemic collapse grip San Francisco-based First Republic and other oversized regional banks, Bloomberg was the primary to report this Friday.
The confusion caused such an issue that Republic Bank CEO and chairman Thomas Geisel wrote a public plea earlier this month outlining the differences between the 2 lenders and their business models – starting with the plain.
Republic First Bancorp’s stores operate under the name “Republic Bank”.
“Within the midst of all that is occurring, Republic Bank would really like to be very clear: we’re Republic Bank, Inc. (FRBK-red-blue logo); We’re NOT First Republic Bank (FRC-Green Logo),” says Geisel within the letter.
“The Bank of the Republic is totally different; We do NOT lend to start-ups and we will not be involved in Crypto,” added Geisel. “We mainly lend to well-established firms. We borrow against collateral and money flow, we lend to viable firms that may service the debt, and we normally have personal guarantees.
Republic First has no ties to First Republic, which received a $30 billion bailout from the country’s largest banks after an enormous deposit outflow put it in peril of collapse, and it doesn’t appear to be experiencing the identical challenges in its operations.
Nevertheless, Republic First shares fell as much as 28% on March 17, the day the First Republic bailout was announced.
It was the biggest intraday drop for Republic First in nearly three many years.
Republic First’s customer base consists mainly of corporate and retail customers, while First Republic has built its troubled business on loans to wealthy individuals.
Republic First shares rose greater than 13% on Friday, perhaps as investors began to understand the difference.
Bloomberg noted that Republic First initially tried to call itself “The First Republic” after the 1996 merger, but backtracked and adjusted the words after the unique was rejected.
This is not the primary time the 2 similarly named entities have found themselves at odds.
As The Post reported last July, Facebook’s parent Meta.is faced a lawsuit after one other company, virtual reality company Meta.is, accused it of violating “fundamental mental property rights.”