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FVNB Corporation in Victoria, Texas, is expanding into the Austin and San Antonio markets with a deal to acquire the $270 million-asset First State Bank in New Braunfels.
April 16 -
"Is my bank worth that much?" That is the urgent question potential sellers are asking in the Lone Star State, after two pricey deals there — for Encore Bancshares and American State Financial — the past two months.
April 5
Pioneer Bank in Dripping Springs, Texas, has struck its first-ever acquisition, announcing Tuesday that it is buying the $28 million-asset Colorado Valley Bank in LaGrange.
Founded in 2007, Pioneer has $147 million of assets and two branches in the Austin-San Antonio corridor and its deal for Colorado Valley would add two branches in the suburbs east of Austin. The sale is expected to close at the end of this quarter. A deal price was not disclosed.
In a news release, Pioneer President and Chief Executive Jeffrey A. Wilkinson said Colorado Valley is a bank with "excellent potential" in the LaGrange market. Colorado Valley has lost money in each of the last four years, according to Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. data, but it showed strong loan growth last year and it has few problem loans on its books.
Also, Wilkinson is familiar with Colorado Valley's management team; he worked with its president and CEO, Melvin A. Barta, at Texas United Bancshares, which was sold in 2007 to Prosperity Bancshares (PB).
Texas is one of the few areas of the country where a much-anticipated wave of bank consolidation is beginning to take hold. Pioneer's deal for Colorado Valley is the second announced in south central Texas in the past week and at least the seventh in Texas since the start of the year.
