HarborOne gets OK to go public, reorganize

BROCKTON – HarborOne Bank and its proposed new parent, HarborOne Bancorp Inc., have received all the required regulatory approvals to go public and reorganize the company into a mutual holding company.
The Brockton-based bank on May 18 announced the company is offering for sale up to 12,569,040 shares of common stock at a purchase price of $10 per share. The offering may be increased to up to about 14.4 million “to reflect regulatory considerations, changes in market and financial conditions, and or demand for the common stock,” according to the announcement. The shares are offered in subscription first to certain depositors, second to tax-qualified employee benefit plans and third to employees, officers and directors of the bank and its subsidiary Merrimack Mortgage Company LLC.
Any shares not purchased will then be offered to members of the general public in a community offering, according to release.
HarborOne entered the Rhode Island market last June when it opened a commercial loan office in Providence. It’s gone through some transformational changes in the past few years, as three years ago it was a credit union, and now, with $2 billion in assets, the bank is the largest co-operative bank in New England with business operations throughout the region.
Through the public offering, the bank is creating a charitable fund, which is funded with 0.7 percent of the gross proceeds raised in the minority stock offering and 1.2 percent of the mid-tier holding company’s outstanding shares of common stock following the minority stock offering, according to a federal filing.