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Dwight Utz wanted to accelerate his North Carolina company's growth by bringing in private equity. Less than year after ECB's plans fell through, the company agreed to sell to Crescent Financial, which has plenty of backing from private equity firms.
September 25 -
Private equity may have played a role in the deal. Crescent, led by Scott Custer, has PE backing, while an infusion set for ECB fell through earlier this year.
September 25
Shareholders of ECB Bancorp (ECBE) have approved the Engelhard, N.C., company's sale to Crescent Financial (CRFN).
The shareholders gave their approval at a special meeting on Wednesday, Dwight Utz, ECB's president and chief executive, announced on his LinkedIn account. The $51.6 million sale, representing a 77% premium to ECB's tangible book value, was
Neither company immediately responded to American Banker's requests for comment.
The merger of the North Carolina companies will create a lender with nearly $2 billion in assets. ECB is the parent of $900 million-asset East Carolina Bank, and Crescent is the parent of VantageSouth, in Cary, with $1 billion in assets.
Utz told American Banker in September that he
In December, Crescent merged its Crescent State Bank with VantageSouth. Before the merger, Crescent and VantageSouth were majority-owned by Piedmont Community Bank Holdings, which is backed by a pair of New York private equity firms.
