Law Firm Brower Piven Announces Investigation of Newport Bancorp, Inc. Proposed Buyout

The securities litigation firm of Brower Piven, A Professional Corporation, has commenced an investigation into possible breaches of fiduciary duty to current shareholders of Newport Bancorp, Inc., a Maryland corporation (“Newport” or the “Company”) (Nasdaq: “NFSB”) and other violations of state law by the board of directors of Newport relating to the proposed buyout of the Company by SI Financial Group, Inc. (“SI Financial”). Newport is the holding company for Newport Federal Savings Bank. The firm’s investigation seeks to determine, among other things, whether Newport’s board of directors breached their fiduciary duties by failing to maximize shareholder value.

According to the press release announcing the proposed buyout, Newport shareholders will have the right to elect to receive either $17.55 in cash or 1.5129 shares of SI Financial common stock in exchange for each share of Newport they own, subject to certain proration procedures. Based upon SI Financial’s five-day average closing price of $11.60 on March 4, 2013, the transaction is valued at $17.55 per share, or approximately $61.3 million in the aggregate.

If you currently own common stock of Newport and would like to learn more about the investigation being conducted by Brower Piven, you may email or call Brower Piven, who will, without obligation or cost to you, attempt to answer your questions. You may contact Brower Piven by email at [e-mail], by calling [phone], or at Brower Piven, A Professional Corporation, 1925 Old Valley Road, Stevenson, Maryland 21153. Brower Piven is the only firm headquartered in Maryland with a practice dedicated primarily to shareholder class action litigation. The firm is experienced with the Maryland legal standards that will apply in seeking to protect shareholders’ rights. Attorneys at Brower Piven have combined experience litigating securities and other class action cases of over 60 years.