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First BanCorp. in San Juan, Puerto Rico said it had brought on as its nonexecutive chairman Roberto Herencia, who had been the president and chief executive of Midwest Banc Holdings in Melrose Park, Ill., from 2009 to 2010.
October 14
A group of investors headed by a former top Banco Popular executive has agreed to inject up to $150 million into a privately held Chicago banking company that is still smarting from the real estate bust.
Metropolitan Bank Group is a five-bank holding company with $2.9 billion of assets and about 80 branches in and around Chicago. The company has lost nearly $150 million in the last two years and four of its five banks are
Citing an internal memo from Metroplitan's owners to employees, local news outlets reported late Monday that the investment group, BXM Holdings, is made up primarily of wealthy Latin American investors. It is led by Roberto Herencia, who was chief of executive of Banco Popular North America from 2001 to 2008 and later was installed as CEO of Midwest Bank Holdings as that company was battling to stay afloat. Midwest failed in 2010.
Sources told Crain's Chicago Business that Herencia would likely become CEO of Metropolitan once the recapitalization is completed. The deal is contingent on the Treasury Department agreeing to take a haircut on the $78 million of preferred shares it received from Metropolitan as part of the Troubled Asset Relief Program, according to the internal memo.
News of the memo was first reported by the Chicago Tribune.
Metropolitan is owned by well-known civic leaders Peter and Paula Fasseas. In the email to employees, the Fasseas' said that they "couldn't be happier" to announce that it had reached an agreement with the investment group. They provided few details about the terms of the recapitalization, but promised in the memo that Metropolitan "will retain the community focus that has been so important to us since we first bought North Community Bank in 1978" — at the time a one-branch bank with $16 million of deposits and 16 employees.
North Community, in Chicago, is the largest of Metropolitan's five banks, with $952 million of assets. The other banks are Metrobank in Berwyn, Ill., Plaza Bank in Norridge, Ill., Oswego Community Bank in Oswego and Archer Bank in Chicago.
