Columbia, Prosperity, Crescent and Bell State Close Deals

Columbia Banking System (COLB), Prosperity Bancshares (PB), Crescent Financial Bancshares (CRFN) and Bell State Bank & Trust completed acquisitions Monday.

Columbia, in Tacoma, Wash., completed its $506 million cash-and-stock purchase of West Coast Bancorp in Lake Oswego, Ore. It pushes Columbia's asset base to $7 billion and gives it 157 branches in Washington and Oregon. The deal was announced in September and approved by shareholders in March.

Prosperity, in Houston, completed its $194 million cash-and-stock purchase of Coppermark Bancshares in Oklahoma City. The deal is the $14.6 billion-asset Prosperity's first venture outside of Texas. Prosperity acquired approximately $1.3 billion in assets, $1.2 billion of deposits and nine branches from Coppermark.

Russell Swarts, Coppermark's chairman, becomes senior chairman of the central Oklahoma region for the combined company, and Coppermark President Thomas Legan becomes chairman of the central Oklahoma region, with responsibility for daily operations.

Crescent, in Raleigh, N.C., completed its deal for ECB Bancshares in Engelhard, N.C. The combined company has $2 billion of assets, $1.7 billion in deposits and 45 branches, it said Monday. The East Carolina Bank, ECB's subsidiary, will begin operating as VantageSouth Bank, Crescent's banking unit, by the end of the month.

Crescent agreed in November to pay $52 million in stock, or roughly 77% of tangible book value, for ECB. ECB decided to sell after an agreement to raise $80 million from private-equity investors was called off in February 2012.

Bell State, in Fargo, N.D., closed its deal for the Business Bank in Minneapolis. The two privately held companies announced their agreement in January. Bell State has also acquired the Business Bank's mortgage unit, Prime Mortgage, which will be merged into Bell Mortgages.

The combined company has $2.6 billion in assets and 18 branches in North Dakota, Idaho, Minnesota and Arizona.