In mid-March, an investor group that includes George Norcross III and Greg Braca submitted a proposal to purchase $50 million in new nonvoting preferred shares and engage in a second-stage transaction with Republic First that would push its total ownership stake to up to 51%. At the end of April, Republic First was trading at the fourth-lowest multiple to adjusted tangible book value among all major exchange-traded U.S. banks with at least $3 billion in assets. Branch activity In March, Pennsylvania saw a large number of branch closures due to M&A. Harrisburg, Pa.-based Mid Penn Bancorp Inc. and Wilmington, Del.-based WSFS Financial Corp. accounted for all but three of the state's 41 branch closures. Twenty of WSFS' 22 branch closures in March were previously owned by Bryn Mawr, Pa.-based Bryn Mawr Bank Corp., which WSFS acquired Jan. 1.