Services Available through Howe Barnes

Through its partial ownership of Howe Barnes Investments Inc. (HBI), Vining Sparks is able to offer its financial institution customers a broad range of capital markets services. These services include, but are not limited to, the ones discussed below.

Corporate Finance

HBI’s Corporate Finance staff assists publicly held and privately held financial institutions in raising funds through debt and equity offerings, merger and acquisition advice, valuation studies and fairness opinions.
l Debt and Equity Offerings - Funds can be raised through an initial public offering or private placement and can include a wide range of debt or equity alternatives.
l Valuation Studies and Fairness Opinions - HBI also conducts business valuations, and issues opinions assessing the fairness of transactions which can be used to determine values for various financial interests, including debt and equity holders.
l Merger and Acquisition Activity – HBI’s Corporate Finance staff can be a source for planning, negotiating, and implementing successful M&A programs through a professional study of the resources, and the short-term and long-term objectives of both the seller and prospective buyers.

Market-Making Activities

HBI commits its own capital to making principal markets for hundreds of banks and thrifts throughout the country. Their proprietary traders are continually searching for and adding dynamic community banking companies to the market making list. HBI has a unique philosophy of developing a complete relationship with their banking clients which allows them to significantly impact the trading in many stocks.
HBI’s market-making activities extend to non-SEC reporting companies on the NASDAQ, Bulletin Board and the Pink Sheets. Financial institutions which do not trade on an exchange have realized many benefits from using Howe Barnes as a market maker for their shares. These benefits include increased liquidity, assistance in executing stock buy backs, anonymity for selling shareholders and familiarity to the capital markets.

Research

The experienced bank research analysts at HBI utilize objective fundamental analysis to initiate and provide comprehensive coverage on community banks and thrifts. This coverage includes basic reports, earnings estimates and company updates. Research also conducts statistical compilations on hundreds of other financial institutions and prepares various industry studies which highlight ongoing trends in the bank and thrift sectors as a whole. A majority of the financial institutions followed by HBI’s research analysts are traded on the Nasdaq National Market although some are closely held and traded in the "pink sheets" or on the over the counter bulletin board.

For more information on the services described above, contact your account representative or Randy Wade at 1-800-829-0321.