Citizens Business Bank announces $811M deal
The pace of California bank merger announcements picked up in December with CVB Financial Corp., parent of Citizens Business Bank announcing an $811 million del to acquire the parent of Heritage Bank of Commerce.
The all stock merger will result in a bank with roughly $22 billion in assets; prior to the merger Citizens had about $15 billion in assets. Citizens is based in Ontario and it operates several branches on the Central Coast; the merger with Heritage will dramatically expand its presence in the Bay Area.
“This will be the most strategic and the largest acquisition by assets in our history,’’ said David A Brager, president and CEO of Citizens in a statement.
The Citizens announcement follows by a matter of hours the announcement that Community West Bank is acquiring the parent of Fresno-based United Security Bank in a transaction valued at $191.9 million. Community West assets will increase to around $5 billion as a result of the merger.
In early trading on Dec. 18, Heritage shares rose about 1% and Citizens Bank shares fell around 4.8%. After the merger, Brager will continue as CEO of Citizens and Clay Jones, CEO of Heritage will join Citizens as president, according to a statement.
Heritage shareholders will own about 23% of Citizens’ shares and will nominate two board members after the merger closes. The deal is subject to regulatory and shareholder approval and it is expected to be accretive to earnings, according to the statement.
