Guaranty Federal Bancshares, Inc. Announces Termination of Employee Stock Ownership Plan

SPRINGFIELD, Mo., Jan. 6, 2014 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Guaranty Federal Bancshares, Inc., GFED, the holding company (the "Company") for Guaranty Bank, today announces that it has completed the termination and liquidation of its Employee Stock Ownership Plan (ESOP) which began in 1998. Effective December 31, 2012, after all shares had been allocated to participants, the Company's Board of Directors approved the termination of the ESOP, subject to Internal Revenue Service approval. The subsequent termination and final distributions resulted in the transfer of approximately 233,000 common shares of the Company's stock to 145 remaining participants.

"The Board of Directors implemented the ESOP when our company went public to help align the interests of employees with the shareholders," said Shaun A. Burke, President & CEO. "Now that the plan has been terminated and the shares have been distributed, our employee owners will continue to be motivated to maximize performance and the value of our stock."

The Company estimates that it will realize an annual savings of approximately $25,000 associated with administrative costs of the plan. Additionally, the employee ownership will increase the number of shares publicly available for trading.

About Guaranty Federal Bancshares, Inc.

Guaranty Federal Bancshares, Inc. GFED has a subsidiary corporation offering full banking services. The principal subsidiary, Guaranty Bank, is headquartered in Springfield, Missouri, and has nine full-service branches in Greene and Christian Counties and a Loan Production Office in Webster County. In addition, Guaranty Bank is a member of the TransFund ATM network which provides its customers surcharge free access to over 100 area ATMs and over 1,600 ATMs nationwide. For more information visit the Guaranty Bank website: www.gbankmo.com.

The discussion set forth above may contain forward-looking comments. Such comments are based upon the information currently available to management of the Company and management's perception thereof as of the date of this release. When used in this release, words such as "anticipates," "estimates," "believes," "expects," and similar expressions are intended to identify forward-looking statements but are not the exclusive means of identifying such statements. Such statements are subject to risks and uncertainties. Actual results of the Company's operations could materially differ from those forward-looking comments. The differences could be caused by a number of factors or combination of factors including, but not limited to: changes in demand for banking services; changes in portfolio composition; changes in management strategy; increased competition from both bank and non-bank companies; changes in the general level of interest rates; the effect of regulatory or government legislative changes; technology changes; fluctuation in inflation; and other factors set forth in reports and other documents filed by the Company with the Securities and Exchange Commission from time to time.