Premara Financial, Inc. Completes $8.5 Million Private Placement of Common Stock

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Nov 30, 2015, 02:00 ET

CHARLOTTE, N.C., Nov. 30, 2015 /PRNewswire/ -- Premara Financial, Inc. (OTC-QB: PARA), the holding company for Carolina Premier Bank, announced today that it successfully completed its private placement of the Company's common stock today, with a total of 1,214,285 shares of the Company's common stock sold at a purchase price of $7.00 per share for aggregate gross proceeds of $8,499,995 before expenses. The net proceeds of this raise will be used to retire $6.2 million of its preferred stock held by the U.S. Treasury under the Small Business Lending Fund ("SBLF") and to support additional balance sheet growth.

President and Chief Executive Officer David P. Barksdale commented that "one of the open issues when I arrived in February was to address the capital structure by retiring preferred stock before the coupon rate increases in 2016. Our team of banking professionals and advisors worked diligently to not only address the preferred stock but to also raise additional growth capital for the bank."

Chairman of the Board Charles R. Davis stated that "We are pleased with our new shareholders. They share the belief with our Board that we are in a great market, have an executable strategy, and enjoy a solid base from which to build. We look forward to growing our commercial, professional, and retail base in the greater Charlotte market."

In conjunction with the capital raise, Coleman J. Clougherty joined the Premara and Carolina Premier Bank Boards of Directors. Clougherty serves as Executive Vice President of Retail Banking Strategy for BancVue, an Austin, TX-based FinTech company that works exclusively with Community Financial Institutions throughout the country. Prior to BancVue, Clougherty served as President and Chief Executive Officer of Farmers Citizens Bank, a $375 million community bank in Ohio.

Pending approval from the U.S. Treasury, Premara plans to retire all outstanding preferred stock within the next few weeks.

Boenning & Scattergood, Inc. acted as sole placement agent in connection with the private placement.

About Premara Financial, Inc.: Headquartered in Charlotte, North Carolina, Premara Financial, Inc. was founded in August 2011 as a North Carolina corporation and bank holding company for Carolina Premier Bank, which was founded in August 2007. Through the Bank, Premara serves the communities of Charlotte in North Carolina; and Blacksburg, Rock Hill and Six Mile in South Carolina by offering a broad range of commercial and consumer banking services to small and medium-sized business, professionals and local residents. Shares of Premara trade on the OTC Bulletin Board under the symbol PARA. For more information about Premara and the Bank, please visit our website at www.carolinapremierbank.com.

Forward Looking Statements: Certain statements made in this press release may constitute "forward-looking statements" within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Forward-looking statements are statements that include projections, predictions, expectations, or beliefs about events or results or otherwise are not statements of historical facts, such as statements about the Company's growth strategy and deployment of capital. Although the Company believes that its expectations with respect to such forward-looking statements are based upon reasonable assumptions within the bounds of its existing knowledge of its business and operations, there can be no assurance that actual results, performance or achievements of the Company will not differ materially from those expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements. The Company undertakes no obligation to publicly update or revise any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise, except as required by applicable law.