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Brooklyn,____ incDime Makes Bid To Go Public In Huee Stock Offering a nContinued from Page Iadds.%u201cButit will only be one of several factors.%u201dFor thrift institutions, going public is anew way to raise large sums of moneyquickly, although in New York State thepractice was not possible until 1980 when achange in the State Constitution was ratifiedby voters.Banks did not jump on the financial bandwagon immediately, however, and certainlynot to the extent that the Dime intends tooffer its investors. The public offering seeksto raise $320 million for the Dime to expandprogrms and leave a comfortable financialmargin between itself and Federal regulations.%u201cWe would have had no problem maintaining our regulations,%u201d assures ArtBassin, executive vice president and chiefbanking officer for the Dime, %u201cBut this willallow us to expand more quickly and tobecome more competitive with the commercial banks.%u201dBassin, Kramer and Community AffairsManager Roger Williams took the Dime%u2019sconversion show on the road three weeksprior to the special meeting, making 17highly-advertised stops to meet with Dimedepositors to lobby for the plan. Although noone involved will speculate how well thestock subscription offering is doing, they dosay that thousands of people attended the information sessions, mostly to discuss thefiner points of the market for the stock.%u201cWe were extrem ely pleased with theturnout at the m eetings,%u201d says Kramer,%u201cAnd at the interest.%u201dOne m eeting scheduled for Long IslandUniversity%u2019s Brooklyn Campus drew 400people even after the location was changedat tiie last moment with no notification. Atthat m eeting proxies were collected and thebank officers answered questions about theconversion.At the Brooklyn m eeting the audiencewas concerned both with the details of theconversion, and also how it would affecttheir money on deposit. Questions rangedfrom one woman who wanted to know if theDime would refund her money if the stockfailed, to several people who wanted toknow if it was possible to convert fundsfrom an Individual Retirement Account(IRA) to a stock subscription.The bank officers said no to the first question, and advised those wanting to convertIRAs to consult their personal financialanalyst. Bassin added that certificates ofdeposit would continue to yield the same interest if money subtracted to purchasestock did not cause the CD to dip below therequired level.According to banker Bassin, the fundsraised by converting to a stock-ownedenterprise will be used for %u201cgeneral bankingpurposes.%u201d He told the Brooklyn audiencethat the bank will be better able to serve itsexisting accounts, but would also have theopportunity to expand. %u201cWe could do it onour own,%u201d says Basin. %u201cBut this will give usthe financial strength to do it faster.%u201d Hesays that going public will give the financial institution the opportunity to expand, inonly six months, to a point that would takeseveral years to reach if the Dime maintained its present mutual status.Although members approved the conversion plan, the potential for market successfor the stock is at best speculative. Whilethrift institutions have been going public inNew York state for several years, a significant track record has not been set for abank the size of the Dime. With $8.15 billionin assets, 66 branches and one million accounts, and $320 million to be raised, apublic offering of this size is unprecedentedin the state.%u201cObviously they wouldn%u2019t consider goingpublic if they didn%u2019t think it would be successful,%u201d says Henry Peltz, of Keefe,Bruyette and Woods, an investment bankingfirm specializing in thrift institutions.Although thrift stocks surged somewhat inApril and then flattened, Peltz says that apublic offering of the Dime, coupled withSeamans Bank for Savings, another largethrift institution contemplating going public,could tip the momentum back in favor ofthrift stocks.%u201cA number of other (thrift institutions)have gone public recently, and while mosthave tended to rise sharply in value, othershave declined,%u201d he says. %u201cThere are anumber of factors that determine the success of the stock.%u201dOther New York banks have witnessedmixed receptions for their stocks, almost allof which are currently trading below theiryearly highs on the NASDAQ listings. (Thestocks will eventually be traded on the NewYork Stock Exchange.) Crossland SavingsBank, which went public almost a year ago,is currently trading at $16 a share, up froma $9-a-share low, but significantly under a$24-a-share high. Apple Bank had a high of$33 a share; a low of $11 a share and is currently trading at about $27 a share.Peltz says, however, that both Apple andCrossland were small offerings compared tothe Dime. Apple raised $54 million andCrosslands just over $130 million with theirinitial offerings. The Dime hopes to raise$320 million. %u201cAnytime you make a publicoffering with numbers like this, it is goingto be more difficult than with some of thesmaller thrifts that have gone public,%u201d hesays, adding that Salamon Brothers, whichwill handle the offering, is experienced inhandling large offerings after trading stockin Meritor, an offering that raised $390million for the Midwest-based thrift institution.The Dime stock currently has twofavorable conditions working for its success: a perceived interest in purchasingstock by its depositors, and relatively goodvaluation based on pro forma informationincluded in the prospectus offering.Although a fear of prejudicing the marketis keeping the bank officers and stock syndicators tight-lipped about actual subscription requests, the conversion team at thebank does say that they have been receiving numerous inquiries about the stock, andbrokers have been calling people who haveexpressed an interest in the stock, to drumup sales. Roughly 20 percent of the stock isexpected to be sold by advance subscription.According to the detailed Dime prospectus, the pro forma (book value) of the newstock has been calculated at $18.59 if thestock sells at $15 a share. At $20 a share thepro forma value is $23.31. Although theestim ates are not exact, and subject tochange, the $15 shares represent 81 percentof book value, and at $20 a share thepercentage rises to 86 percent. Goodnumbers, according to industry analysts.Bank officials are predictably optimisticabout the conversion and have spent threeweeks telling their members that the bankwill only be improved by the stock offering.%u201cMost of the negative discussion wasbecause people thought they%u2019d be givingsomething up,%u201d says Kramer. %u201cThey wereconcerned about the term s of their CD%u2019s.But there are no real negatives. The bank isstill going to be a bank, and we are stillhere to serve. This will improve our abilityto serve.%u201dWhile expanded services are important,going public is the only way these days thatthrift institutions can create the capital theyneed to compete with commercial banksand financial service corporations that arecontinually diversifying their services.Although the Dime is strong now, between1981 to 1984 the bank experienced significantlosses (as did many thrift institutions),causing its net worth to decline from$311,074,000 in 1981 to $33,575,000 in 1984. Asof March 1986, the unaudited report showsthe net worth at $93,589,000. For thatpositive trend to continue and quicken, thebank management says the best option is togo public.It is a trend that Stan Strachen, editor ofNational Thrift News, an industrynewspaper, says will continue to grow,especially if public offerings continue to beeven moderately successful. %u201cIt%u2019s almostnecessary,%u201d he says. %u201cIt%u2019s the only way totake years of losses and put a bank back inthe m oney. They are all realizing that andswooping down on the opportunity.%u201dI S ubscription O lferir^~ circulairrniiFLORIDATampaDeerfield;BeachCoral GROCKLAND WESTCHPer ShareT o ta l(4 )(2) Consist! Public f(3) Neitthe r(%u00ab) Ooesi other iUpon the