Suffolk News-Herald

In today’s banking climate of mergers and heightened customer frustration, Suffolk’s newest locally-owned bank is making some favorable advances.

SuffolkFirst Bank (NASDAQ:SUFB), a state-chartered institution headquartered in the city, announced on Friday that it successfully completed a combination rights offerings of 150,000 shares of common stock at a price of $8.50 per share. This generated $6.6 million in additional capital before deducting sales commissions and expenses.

The bank sold the shares in the oversubscribed rights offering to existing shareholders, and an additional 623,882 shares were purchased in the public offering through its selling agent, McKinnon & Company, Inc.

SuffolkFirst will use the new capital to support its continued growth, expand loan and investment portfolios, and for general corporate needs. Its common stock began trading Friday on The NASDAQ SmallCap Market under the symbol &uot;SUFB&uot;

&uot;The offerings were very successful, and we are thrilled by this showing of confidence by both our existing shareholders and our new shareholders,&uot; said President and Chief Executive Officer Darrell G. Swanigan.

Swanigan added that he believes several factors, including its local appeal, have catered to its rapid progress.

&uot;I attribute the growth to our excellent employees and the hard work and dedication of our board of directors and officers,&uot; Swanigan elaborated. &uot;The customers like our service. We have good down-home hometown service.&uot;

SuffolkFirst Bank is a locally owned and managed community bank, organized in 2002. The bank opened for business on January 27, 2003, and currently operates two full service banking offices and a separate operations center in Suffolk. On March 31, 2004, the bank had total assets of $52.9 million, total loans of $26.8 million and deposits of $43.56 million.