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Jay Sidhu says Customers Bancorp, a Wyomissing, Pa., company could also revisit its now-delayed IPO by the end of the year.
May 10 -
Customers Bancorp, led by Jay Sidhu, is set to go public. The one-time Sovereign Bank chief and others say he has learned from the past about how to balance internal growth and acquisitions.
May 3
Customers Bancorp in Wyomissing, Pa., is giving up nearly 20% of its ownership to venture into the greater Washington, D.C., market.
On Thursday, the $2 billion-asset Customers, which is led by veteran banker Jay Sidhu, announced it would acquire the $1 billion-asset Acacia Federal Savings Bank in Falls Church, Va., from Ameritas Mutual Holding for $65 million in stock.
The transaction, which is slated to close in the fourth quarter, calls for Ameritas to receive $45 million of common stock priced at 1.15 times book value at the closing, and an additional $20 million of preferred stock that would carry a 3.72% interest rate for the first five years.
Once the deal closes, Ameritas would own 9.9% of all Customers' voting stock and a 19.9% stake in the company overall.
Sidhu, Customers chairman and chief executive officer, said in a press release that the company is "excited about having Ameritas as a partner" and that the deal would help Customers significantly grow its mortgage banking platform.
Roughly 90% of Acacia's total loans consist of one-to-four family home loans, according to March 31 data from the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp.
Customers said in press release that it was only acquiring the healthy parts of Acacia, with Ameritas retaining all of the thrift's nonperforming loans, real estate owned and "other assets that it deems to possess higher risk."
At March 31, Acacia's nonperforming assets made up 4.85% of total assets, though the thrift's total risk-based capital ratio was extremely high, at 22.68%.
Last month, Customers postponed its initial public offering in which it hoped to raise as much as $123 million because of market conditions.
Sidhu is considered a savvy acquirer, having grown Sovereign Bank's assets from $500 million to more than $90 billion before resigning from that company in 2006. Sovereign was sold Banco Santander SA in 2009.
Sidhu took the helm of Customers, then known as New Century Bank, in 2009 and led its $17 million recapitalization.
