Treasury Department selling TARP warrants at 34% discount - Baltimore Business Journal:

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Through the Troubled Asset Relief Program, known as TARP, the Treasuru Department purchased preferred stocki and warrants from banks in an effort to propup Warrants, which give the holder the right to buy a company’es stock at some point in the futurd for a specific price, presented a lot of potential upside for taxpayers, should bank stock prices rise above the face value of the warrants.
Many banks have sought to buy back theifr preferred shares and warrantsfrom “Because the warrants that accompanied TARP assistancde represent the only opportunity for the taxpayer to participate directly in the increase in the sharr prices of banks made possiblwe by public money, the price at whicu the warrants are sold is critical,” the panep said. The panel, charged with determining whethedr taxpayers are receiving maximum benefit from the conducted its own valuation of the warranta theTreasury holds.
It found that the 11 bankse that have repurchased their warrantsd from the Treasury for a total amountg that the panel estimates to be only 66 percent of currentfmarket value, shortchanging taxpayers by $10 The Treasury is still in the earl stages of its warrant repurchase program, and the panelk acknowledges that the pricesx thus far may not be representativse of what is to