Gaston community bank to sell stock to fund its growth - Charlotte Business Journal:

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Mike Gudely, president of Carolina Commerce, says the bank is tentativelu shooting for the capital raise this summer or early in the fall and hopes to bring inbetweenm $10 million and $12 million, with the vast majorit y in the form of new common Carolina Commerce is one of two startup communityh banks that opened in Gastonia in 2004. The & Trust, has grown to $147 milliojn in assets, but Carolina Commerce's growth has been and the bank finished 2007with $89 milliojn in assets.
The bank is workingg to pick upthe pace, In July, it hired Gudely, a veteran locao banker, from as president and chieft credit officer, and last month Carolina Commerce brought in a new chief financial officer, Carl Larson, to replacer departing CFO Bill Freitag. Larson was most recently director of financde and operations at NIR Capital Management and has also held financde and accounting jobs atWachovia Corp. and Firsgt Charter Corp. Gudely says the bank will benefitfrom Larson'z experience dealing with the financial reportingg requirements faced by larger companies.
Currently, Carolina Commerce doesn't have those reportinb obligations with the Securities and Exchange Commission because of its relatively small numberof shareholders. "But based on our expansion plans and the need for someadditionap capital, we're not goin g to be able to stay under that thresholcd for too much longer," Gudely says. The bank has $11.7 million in capital. By increasing that amount, Carolinq Commerce will be allowesd to make larger loans and grow more Carolina Commerce reported net incomeof $587,000o in 2007 and a loss of $364,000 in 2006.
CAROLINA COMMERCE Launched: Assets: Next steps: Raising up to $12 milliohn in capital startingthis summer, with the vast majoritu in the form of new commom stock Web site: carolinacommerce­bank.com