Primis Financial plans to sell a portion of Panacea stake for ~$22M (FRST:NASDAQ)

Primis Financial (NASDAQ:FRST) announced on Thursday plans to sell a portion of its ownership in the unit, Panacea Financial Holdings, for ~$22M.

The regional lender's deconsolidation of Panacea was effective March 31. FRST had said the deconsolidation enables it to record a pre-tax gain of about $24.6M.

Primis now expects an additional gain of between $6.5M and $7.0M pre-tax as the sales price per share exceeded the carrying value as of March 31.

“Realizing this gain will allow the company to be more aggressive on certain strategies, such as its share repurchase program or accelerating growth,” said CEO Dennis Zember.