Projo Biz Blog

The management at Providence-based Bancorp Rhode Island, the parent of Bank Rhode Island, this week received a positive review from a national investment advisory firm.

The review comes as the bank fights off a pair of dissident shareholders intent on engineering a sale of Bancorp Rhode Island (BARI:Nasdaq).

In a report released late yesterday to The Providence Journal, Glass Lewis & Co. analysts said: "While certain aspects of the comapny's operational performance continue to lag behind its peers, we see improvements on multiple fronts. We believe these improvements, while modest, suggest that the removal of the company's current directors is unwarranted at this time."

This is the second time Glass Lewis has advised BARI shareholders to stand fast. Glass Lewis offered a similar opinion last year as PL Capital LLC, an Illinois hedge-fund investment firm headed by Richard Lashley and John Palmer, pushed for the ouster of Merrill Sherman, BARI's president and chief executive, and ultimately, the bank's sale.

Lashley and Palmer will square off once again with Sherman, and bank's founder and board chairman Malcolm G. Chace III, at BARI's annual meeting, set this year for May 21.

---