Amerant Bancorp (AMTB, Financial) is a community bank with operations primarily in South Florida and Houston,Texas. It began life as a public company in 2018 when Venezuelan financial services conglomerate Mercantil Servicios Financieros (MSF), spun-o the business. While it struggled to grow since then and su ered from a high expense burden and high-cost deposits, new CEO Jerry Plush took over about a year ago and put forth a plan to lower expense and deposit costs and improve Amerant’s growth profile. The pieces of this plan have been falling into place over the last several quarters and earnings have been improving. In the fourth quarter, the Strategy also benefitted when the company collapsed its dual-class share structure into one class immediately closing the discount at which the “B-shares” that the Strategy owned traded.
From Keeley-Teton Advisors, LLC (Trades, Portfolio)'s Small-Mid Cap Value Fund fourth-quarter 2021 commentary.