Hawaiʻi's third-largest bank has been under private ownership for nearly two years. But that's about to change.
American Savings Bank is the third-largest bank in Hawaiʻi by market share, behind Bank of Hawaii and First Hawaiian Bank. It has about $8 billion in deposits.
For years, the bank was a subsidiary of Hawaiian Electric Industries, along with the holding company's electric utilities. The bank has been privately owned since HEI sold the majority of its shares at the end of 2024 for $400 million.
The bank’s current owners are a mix of institutional investors and the bank's executive team, whose members each own a small stake. HEI kept less than 10% of its shares in the bank and there is no majority shareholder.
But that’s about to change. On Monday, ASB made the first step toward going public with an application to regulators to conduct an initial public offering.
The bank also applied to trade on the New York Stock Exchange under the ticker symbol ASBH.
Until its registration is effective, ASB can't sell shares and investors can’t purchase them. ASB also didn’t say how many shares will be offered, how they will be priced and how much money it hopes to raise.
ASB also hasn’t announced any executive changes as part of its plan to go public, and President and CEO Ann Teranishi remains in charge.
If the deal goes through, American Savings Bank will join six Hawaii companies whose stock is traded on Wall Street. Those include three of the four largest banks in the state — Bank of Hawaii, First Hawaiian Bank and Central Pacific Bank.
