Brunswick Bancorp, New Brunswick, NJ (BRBW)

A Case of Appeal to Family Interest

There's no indication that the scoundrels at Brunswick Bancorp care about their shareholders, but maybe we can appeal to their greed.

Given that Chairman and CEO Roman Gumina owns 27%, his mother 5.5%, and other Guminas 4.2% or more, the family has two great options for making out good without further shareholder shake down:

1. Were the Guminas to sell the bank outright, they would increase the value of their own holdings by $10M. Outside investors would score a similar amount.
   
2. Alternatively, the Gumina family could use a quarter of the bank's excess capital to buy stock back from those of us who want out, make Brunswick Bank & Trust even more of a family operation, and still increase the value of their holdings by $10M.

In any event, if you don't own BRBW, consider yourself lucky! Even at 58% of book value, the stock only "looks" cheap.

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Disclosure: As of this posting, I own shares of BRBW and may subsequently either dispose of them or purchase more.

Prospective Buyers	The $88M in deposits in Brunswick's Livingston Ave branch might be appealing to area institutions, but I doubt any buyer would be interested in the 5 out of 6 other branches struggling to manage less than $10M each. Amboy Bancorp, Old Bridge, NJ (private) Magyar Bancorp, New Brunswick, NJ (MGYR) Provident Financial Services, Iselin, NJ (PFS)
Financial Snapshot †as of 12/31/2016	Total assets: $180M† Tangible book value per share: $12.14† NPAs to assets: 6.5%† Price to book: 59% Market cap: $21.7M Dividend yield: 0% Trailing 12-month return on assets: 0.38%† Trailing 12-month return on equity: 1.85%†
Scoundrels	Roman Gumina, Chairman and CEO Nicholas A. Frungillo, Jr., President Louis Foulke, CFO, Secretary and Treasurer
Red Flags	Ask around and you'll hear all sorts of unsettling rumors about the Gumina family — real gangster stuff, complete with death threats and people suddenly going "dark" after daring to voice their concerns. In the interest of self-preservation, I'll step around all that here. Performance at Brunswick Bank & Trust hasn't improved in decades. In 1989, under the-now-deceased Carmen Gumina's watch, the bank earned $1.1M. It hasn't come close since. NPAs were 10% as recently as Year End 2012, and are still high at 6.5%. Meanwhile, current Chairman and CEO Roman Gumina has been "rewarding" himself pretty handsomely: Over the past seven years, Brunswick Bancorp has suffered a cumulative loss of $501K while Roman skimmed off $2,266,000. In 2010, the bank lost $1.2M and NPAs reached 12%, but that didn't stop Roman from taking a $96K bonus on top of his $310K base pay. Even as the bank started reporting income — net of $283K, $406K, and $677K in 2014, 2015, and 2016, respectively — Roman's $310K a year salary is beyond what you'd call "commensurate with performance."  In spite of his high compensation and the bank's screaming need for stronger management, Gumina doesn't appear to consider his responsibilities or pay grade worthy of full-time attention. 10 Other Entities in which Roman Gumina Owns a Controlling Interest  Aaron Road Associates Cardal Associates Cranbury Station LLC Applegarth Associates Carmine Investments Brunswick Management LLC Englishtown Realty LLC Mullica Hill Management Mantec Associates Franklinville Plaza Management Associates LLC
Sources	Brunswick Bank & Trust website Richard Boywitt vs Brunswick Bancorp lawsuit SNL Financial Confidential interviews with shareholders and analysts