Charter Financial Corporation is a federally-chartered corporation organized in 2001 and is registered as a savings and loan holding company with the Office of Thrift Supervision ("OTS"). Charter Financial serves as the holding company for CharterBank ("Bank"). First Charter, MHC, a federal mutual holding company registered as a savings and loan holding company with the OTS, owns 80% of the outstanding shares of Charter Financial's common stock. Our common stock is quoted on the National Nasdaq Global Market under the symbol "CHFN." Unless the context otherwise requires, all references herein to the Bank or Charter Financial include Charter Financial and the Bank on a consolidated basis.
Our focus is to build stockholder value by effectively deploying our capital. Our plan is to invest in and build our retail banking franchise, manage our Freddie Mac common stock investment wisely and make use of the full range of capital management strategies that are available to us. Our plan is to grow our retail franchise, focusing on core deposits, by enhancing convenience and customer service. This means extending service hours and expanding access through additional branches, either de novo or through acquisitions, and electronic delivery channels. In this regard, we acquired EBA Bancshares, Inc. and its wholly-owned subsidiary, Eagle Bank of Alabama, in order to expand our presence in the Auburn-Opelika, Alabama market in February 2003. We also opened a new branch in Lagrange, Georgia in March 2005 and have relocated two branches in the Auburn-Opelika, Alabama area to more convenient facilities. In addition, we have a nineteen-year history with our investment in Freddie Mac common stock. We will liquidate enough Freddie Mac common stock to fund our self-tender filed on November 21, 2006 with the Securities a nd Exchange Commission. We will also sell enough Freddie Mac common stock to pay income taxes on this related gain. We will continually evaluate the remaining investment and explore our options. We expect our investment to continue to provide a competitive return for our stockholders. We will also evaluate, as appropriate, capital management strategies such as leverage, stock buyback programs and the payment of cash dividends.
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