Charter Financial Corporation (OTCBB: CHFN) is the parent of CharterBank, a full-service community bank and federal savings institution. CharterBank is headquartered in West Point, Georgia, and operates its branches and loan offices on the I-85 corridor from LaGrange, Georgia, to Auburn, Alabama. Charter Financial, the parent, has been approximately 80 percent owned by MHC, a federal mutual holding company. However, on 12/15/09 CFC announced that the Boards of all its related companies adopted a Plan of Conversion to reorganize from the two-tier mutual holding company structure to a stock holding company. Therefore, it is undertaking a "second-step" common stock offering. The company announced it intends to use part of the proceeds from the offering to acquire financial institutions, especially troubled ones, with FDIC assistance.

On March 26, 2010, CHFN announced CharterBank agreed with the FDIC to purchase certain assets and assume the deposits and certain other liabilities of McIntosh Commercial Bank in Carroliton, Georgia.

Additional information is available on the company’s website, www.charterbank.net.



MidWestOne Financial Group, Inc. (MOFG) based in Iowa City is a holding company for the $1.54 billion asset MidWestOne Bank with 29 offices plus its specialized Home Loan Center in 15 counties and 20 Iowa cities throughout central and east-central Iowa and MidWestOne Insurance Services, Inc. that provides personal and business insurance services in three Iowa cities. The common stock is traded on the NASDAQ Global Select Market under the symbol MOFG.

The bank's deposits at March 31, 2010, totaled $1.2 billion and it had loans outstanding totaling $955 million, excluding loan pool participations and loans held for sale. First quarter net income available to common stock shareholders equaled $1.8 million, or 21 cents per diluted share, tangible common equity amounted to $14.70 a share. The company's recent stock price of $16.50 gave it a total market value of about $142 million based on 8.61 million common shares outstanding. The company paid a quarterly cash dividend of five cents a share on June 15, 2010.

OPERATING STRATEGY
The company's strategy is based upon a sophisticated community banking model delivering a complete line of financial products and services while following three guiding principles: hire excellent employees; take care of customers; and conduct business with the utmost integrity. Management believes the personal and professional service offered to customers provides an appealing alternative to the "megabanks" that have resulted from out-of-state national banks acquiring Iowa-based community banks yet management believes its size, combined with its complete line of financial products and services, is sufficient to effectively compete in its markets. To remain price competitive, management believes the company must manage expenses and remain disciplined in its asset/liability management practices.

There is a White Paper on the company's participation in loan pools available upon request.



Spicy Pickle Franchising Inc. (SPKL) is a young, fast-casual restaurant company with 37 Spicy Pickle restaurants in 11 states and 18 Bread Garden Urban Cafes in Canada. The company recently greatly strengthened its board and installed a new CEO. It also received an added $2 million credit line in the form of a convertible promissory note in early summer this year.

The company has three operating segments: seven company owned Spicy Pickle fast casual dining outlets (one closed, to be relocated) featuring fresh, made-to-order, premium submarine, deli and Panini sandwiches, salads, pizzetti and soups; a bakery operation in Denver supplying breads and bakery products for the Spicy Pickle restaurants in Colorado, the majority; and franchise operations that license qualified operators under either company restaurant umbrella. Bread Garden Urban Cafes, acquired October, 2008, also specializes in fast casual dining featuring salads, soups, sandwiches, and desserts.

On the over-the-counter bulletin board, the company recently had a market value of about $7 million, with 82 million weighted average common shares outstanding. For its first quarter ended March 31, 2010, the company reported revenue of $973,000 and a net loss of $864,000.

Company new CEO Mark Laramie said "We view first quarter results as a base from which to grow and prosper. We are optimistic we have the basic ingredients and we will work diligently to improve operations and results."

The company had total assets of $5.4 million at March 31 and stockholders' equity of $2.8 million.

IRC Responds to Tough Times

Because of the tough times for many companies, IRC has been getting increasingly more requests for our services on a one-off basis instead of under an ongoing annual contractual relationship. More companies are tentative about the economic outlook and, therefore, hesitant to sign a long term contract. We have decided to do something we have almost never done before (but did for instance in 1982-3, 1987-8) and that is to unbundle our services and thereby open them up to those wanting periodic IR representation instead of regular monthly servicing. We have begun to help companies with a news release, annual report shareholder message, annual meeting presentation, and investor meetings, for instance. Some of these are community banks and some are other types of companies.

We have not yet decided whether it would be appropriate to put the names of these companies on our web site, which we could not do without permission anyway. In some cases, these companies have other IR representation and that could cause confusion. In other cases, the relationship might be quite fleeting, and hardly worth the effort.

Aye, there's the rub. Should you have any opinion on this that you would care to share please contact us.