Sterling Bancorp in Montebello, N.Y., has agreed to buy Advantage Funding Management from Macquarie Bank.
The $30.4 billion-asset Sterling said in a press release Tuesday that the deal includes a $458 million loan portfolio and origination platform. Sterling, which expects to complete the deal in April, did not disclose the price it will pay.
Sterling will have more than $1 billion in outstanding equipment finance loans once the deal closes.
The acquisition “is consistent with our strategy of transitioning our balance sheet to a more diversified and higher-yielding commercial loan mix following our merger with Astoria,” Jack Kopnisky, Sterling’s president and CEO, said in the release.
The deal “will augment strong organic origination volumes that we anticipate in our commercial businesses in 2018,” Kopnisky added.
During the fourth quarter, the Advantage Funding loan portfolio had a weighted average yield of about 7.5%. Excluding accretion income on acquired loans, the acquisition should be accretive to loan yield, net interest margin and earnings per share.
Sterling said the acquisition will result in a roughly $6 million increase in operating expense this year.
Advantage Funding’s leadership team and support staff will join Sterling.
Hovde Group advised Sterling. Macquarie Capital and Mayer Brown advised Macquarie Group.
