Local investor cancels offer to buy Sunnyside Bancorp, plans tender offer

Kenneth Torsoe is no longer pursuing his offer to purchase Irvington, N.Y.-based Sunnyside Bancorp Inc., the holding company of Sunnyside Federal Savings and Loan Association of Irvington, because the company's board has not responded to his proposal, according to a news release.

In early August, Torsoe proposed to purchase all of Sunnyside Bancorp's shares at $20.00 per share through a to-be-formed holding company. The offer was increased to $22.00 later that month following the announcement that the merger agreement between Sunnyside Bancorp and Rhodium BA Holdings LLC had been amended to increase the cash consideration to be paid to the bank holding company's shareholders to $20.25 per share, among other things.

Torsoe's team also recently received secondhand information that the holding company "adopted a strategy of stonewalling his attempts to pay a higher price while giving a regulatory head start to Rhodium's inferior offer." As a result, the real estate and bank investor is planning to start a tender offer for Sunnyside Bancorp's stock at a price of $23 per share. He intends to apply for government approval and start the tender offer simultaneously, as soon as practicable.

Torsoe is represented by Jay Hack of Gallet Dreyer & Berkey LLP and Rudolph Zodda of Bleakley Platt & Schmidt LLP.