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In what would be its largest acquisition in more 15 years, UnionBanCal Corp. in San Francisco is buying Pacific Capital Corp. in Santa Barbara, Calif., for about $1.5 billion in cash.
March 12
Union Bank will close 15 branches in central and southern California, including some locations recently acquired from Pacific Capital Bancorp.
The plan to close branches comes a little more than a month after San Francisco-based Union Bank completed its acquisition of $5.9 billion-asset Pacific Capital, the owner of Santa Barbara Bank & Trust. The deal gave Union Bank a
Six of the branches scheduled for closure had been operated as Santa Barbara Bank offices, according to recent filing with the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency; they are located in Beverly Hills, Gilroy, Lompoc, Santa Maria, Torrance and Salinas. The remaining nine scheduled for closure are Union Bank offices some of which are near acquired Santa Barbara Bank branches; those are located in Greenbrae, Hollister, Salinas, San Luis Obispo, Santa Fe Springs, Solvang, Watsonville, and two branches in Los Angeles. The company is seeking regulatory approval for the closures.
Before the Pacific Capital deal, Union Bank ranked as the fourth-largest institution in California, by retail deposits, with about 6.3% of the state's market, according to the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. The addition of the Pacific Capital deposits will boost the total market share to nearly 7%.
The $93 billion-asset Union Bank, owned by Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi UFJ, operates more than 400 branches total in California, Washington, Oregon, Texas and New York.
