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Capitol Bancorp said late Monday that it will sell its four remaining banks to Talmer Bancorp in Troy, Mich.
October 15 -
Talmer Bancorp has agreed to buy and recapitalize First Place Bank in Warren, Ohio, in a deal that will work its way through the bankruptcy process.
October 29 -
The $3.6 billion-asset Simmons First said Thursday that it plans to pay $53.6 million in cash for the Little Rock, Ark., bank.
September 12 -
A bankruptcy judge's decision to lower breakup fees in the auction of Metropolitan National gives Simmons First and others a chance at unseating stalking horse Ford Financial. The results could encourage more interest in bidding for bank units of bankrupt holding companies.
September 6 -
Nearly two years after receiving a $200 million infusion from a group led by WL Ross & Co. to execute a roll-up strategy in the Midwest, Talmer Bancorp has received a second serving of capital to help it bankroll further deals.
February 26
Talmer Bancorp in Troy, Mich., is advancing to the expert level in the game of buying troubled banks.
The $4.5 billion-asset Talmer started with the acquisition of failed banks no easy feat, given the competition for such deals and the complex accounting that accompanies loss-share agreements with the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. Last year Talmer moved on to an open-bank deal brokered by a bankruptcy court.
Now, it is looking to buy a group of banks in bankruptcy court while making sure it doesnt inherit the ghosts of their troubled sellers past.
Talmer announced Monday that it would acquire
Earlier this year regulators began shutting down Capitol's weakest units. The FDIC can stick the cost of failure onto surviving siblings, and Talmer is requiring a waiver of such claims known as the cross-guaranty liability as a condition to complete the deal.
At the heart of the deal is Michigan Commerce Bank, a bank created in 2009 by the merger of ten of Capitols units across the state. At $612 million of assets, Michigan Commerce represents 62% of the assets Talmer would acquire.
Michigan Commerce is probably the last big community bank play in Michigan, says Eliot Stark, a bank consultant based near Detroit. It does some nice things for them. Some of these [merged Michigan] banks were the nicest parts of Capitol Bancorp. It takes them into Ann Arbor, which is a great market, too.
Some of Michigan Commerce's best customers may have left given Capitols struggles, but it is still a bank worth pursuing, Stark said.
The other banks included in the deal are: the $235 million-asset Bank of Las Vegas; the $97 million-asset Indiana Community Bank; and the $46 million-asset Sunrise Bank of Albuquerque (N.M).
David Provost, the chief executive of Talmer, declined to comment for this story. However, his intentions for Talmer are well documented. With
Talmer has acquired four failed banks in Wisconsin and Michigan since 2010 and
The Albuquerque and Las Vegas units raise questions because they lie outside Talmer's Midwestern territory. Both banks are significantly undercapitalized, too. New Mexico regulators threatened to seize Sunrise late last year if it did not strengthen its capital position.
Observers speculate that it was easier for Talmer to agree to buy all four banks to ensure it got the ones it really wanted.
Talmer was probably one of the few willing and able to take the whole thing, Stark says. It is probably much cleaner to take it all. Plus they have a lot of experience in working out bad loans given the deals theyve done.
Talmers offer for the banks includes $4.5 million in cash and an additional $2.5 million in administrative fees. It is also committing up to $90 million to recapitalize the banks. The auction is tentatively set for Nov. 7, according to court documents.
However, the deal is far from complete.
It is unclear how difficult it will be obtain a waiver for the failed-bank liability. The FDIC granted waivers to the buyers of several of Capitol Bancorps other units in relation to a 2009 failure of a bank that regulators say was connected to Capitol. It hasnt granted waivers yet regarding
Capitol has three other bank units that are set to be acquired through bankruptcy sales.
Meanwhile,
For Capitol -- which at one time sought to own 100 charters across the country -- the deal would be the final chapter in its effort to save itself.
The deal with Talmer covers the last of its inventory. Last year it filed for bankruptcy reorganization in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in the Eastern District of Michigan with the hopes of bringing in new equity alongside its existing shareholders. The bankruptcy effort turned into sell-off after the new equity failed to materialize and regulators began seizing the banks.