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PacWest Bancorp in Los Angeles is attempting a hostile takeover just days after unseating Umpqua Holdings to buy American Perspective Bank. Industry observers say the company's newfound buying aggression might make it a better seller someday and give its PE investors a tidy exit.
May 9 -
PacWest Bancorp (PACW) in Los Angeles is dead serious about expanding its California footprint through acquisitions.
May 9 -
PacWest Bancorp (PACW) will buy American Perspective for $58 million in cash, trumping a $44 million offer that Umpqua Holdings (UMPQ) made for the San Luis Obispo, Calif., company just a month earlier.
April 30 -
The growth-hungry Opus Bank in Irvine, Calif., is making good on its plans to grow organically alongside acquisitions.
February 21
PacWest Bancorp (PACW) in Los Angeles is experiencing life on the other side of the bargaining table after its bank agreed to sell 10 branches to Opus Bank.
The sale of branches in Los Angeles, San Bernardino, Riverside and San Diego counties are part of PacWest's "effort to improve our overall efficiency and profitability," Matt Wagner, the $5.4 billion-asset company's chief executive, said in a press release. The sale will not result in a material gain for PacWest, but will provide $2 million in after-tax cost savings, Wagner said.
PacWest reported that its first-quarter noninterest expense totaled $68.9 million, up 66% from a year earlier, after it recorded $22.6 million in debt termination expense. Its base efficiency ratio was 97.1%, up from 58.7% a year earlier, because of the debt termination expense.
In recent months, PacWest has been aggressively pursuing deals. After six years without a traditional bank acquisition, it trumped Umpqua Holdings (UMPQ) by placing a higher,
Buying the branches is part of Opus Bank's plan to expand to all major metropolitan areas along the West Coast, Stephen H. Gordon, the bank's chairman and chief executive, said in a separate press release. The deal would give the $2.4 billion-asset bank a presence in San Bernardino and Riverside counties.
Opus
Under the deal with Pacific Western, Opus would buy the roughly $145 million in deposits at the branches for a blended deposit premium of 2.5%. Certain other "immaterial assets" related to the branches will be included but no loans will change hands. The bank's expect to complete the deal by the end of the year.
The deposits being transferred represent about 3% of PacWest Bank's total deposits at March 31. Once the deal closes, Pacific Western Bank will have 66 branches in California.
