Hill in 2005 with Duffy |
Vernon Hill's resignation from Commerce Bancorp Inc. (
NYSE: CBH) in Cherry Hill takes everybody by surprise and is leading to speculation that something else was up - perhaps a federal criminal investigation against Hill himself? Reuters
has this from Mark Fitzgibbon, director of research at Sandler O'Neill & Partners LP:
"He had been on the road marketing the company to investors after the bank said it expected to settle things. That makes you wonder whether something came up in the last two weeks that prompted him to step down." As well, the speculation this morning is that Commerce will now go up for sale, and its new top executives said as much in a
conference call this morning. Investors already are bidding up the price. Harold Brubaker at The
Inquirer today gives some of the history so far and the paper runs
a profile of Hill. Joe DiStefano at Bloomberg News
wraps up the merger talk. So does Mike Barris at
Dow Jones/WSJ (sub. required). The Courier Post in Cherry Hill
has some odd reader comments. The SEC consent order is
here, the detailed stipulations are
here, and memorandum of understanding between the Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia and Commerce Bancorp is
here.
Commerce says replacing Hill will be:
Dennis DiFlorio of Voorhees as chairman
Robert Falese of Moorestown as president and chief executive
Douglas Pauls of Haddon Heights as chief financial officer.
- Thomas Ginsberg
