Blue Gate Bank, a Costa Mesa-based bank that opened early last year, is being sold, according to American Banker.
Big Poppy Holdings of Santa Rosa, Calif., has agreed to buy Blue Gate for an undisclosed price, Poppy Bank Chief Executive Khalid Acheckzai told the magazine. The all-stock deal is expected to close at the end of this year, he said.
The acquisition is part of Poppy Bank’s plan to expand statewide, Acheckzai said.
Blue Gate, which opened in January 2017 after raising $30 million, was the first new bank in California since the 2008 financial crisis. It reached $145 million in assets as of February, Blue Gate director of banking Chris Walsh told the Business Journal.
Walsh and Acheckzai didn’t immediately return phone messages seeking comment.
Blue Gate Chairwoman Molly Gallaher Flater comes from a banking family in Santa Rosa, where her father Bill Gallaher, is the majority owner of Poppy Bank.
