Key acquisitions have helped the Irvine-based parent of Pacific Trust Bank triple its assets over the past year, and now it is moving to consolidate the gains.
Banc of California Inc., previously First PacTrust Bancorp Inc., currently operates through PacTrust Bank and Private Bank of California, its most recent acquisition. The two subsidiaries now account for $3.2 billion in assets and nearly 70 branch locations on the West Coast, including 22 in Southern California.
Banc of California Chief Executive Steven Sugarman said consolidation of the two banking arms—which operate under different charters and regulators—is likely by the end of the year.
Private Bank of California “is the commercial bank … and then we have PacTrust Bank, which has a thrift charter under the [Office of the Comptroller of the Currency],” Sugarman said. “By the end of year, they’ll be integrated together … under a single commercial banking charter.”
It remains to be decided whether the combined operation will go by PacTrust or Private Bank—or a new moniker altogether.
Sugarman led a recapitalization of the bank by COR Capital LLC in Santa Monica in 2010. He became chief executive in September of last year, shortly after the bank announced plans to buy Los Angeles-based Private Bank for $50 million.
That deal came soon after Banc of California had completed acquisitions of Manhattan Beach-based Beach Business Bank and Cerritos-based Gateway Business Bank.
Gateway, along with its Mission Hills Mortgage Bankers division, was merged into PacTrust. Beach Business remained a separate subsidiary until it merged into Private Bank earlier this month following the completion of the latter deal.
The string of recent acquisitions reflects what the holding company had in mind when it moved headquarters to Orange County from Chula Vista early last year.
It had about $1 billion in assets at the time and announced plans to hit $5 billion in the next five years, in part by buying smaller institutions.
“Rapid growth” brings an opportunity to rebrand the bank, according to Sugarman, who has been pushing to further develop the bank’s products and services with the “critical mass” and the “scale that we have.”
Banc of California, whose employee count has grown to more than 1,000, has been building up capital in anticipation of possible future deals and plans for increased investments in its subsidiaries.
The company raised about $81 million through a couple of public offerings in June. It also sold eight banking branches to Spokane, Wash.-based AmericanWest Bank, netting an estimated $13.5 million in pretax gains.
Banc of California also recently tapped former Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa as a strategic adviser as it sharpens its community-bank focus to serve small businesses and potential homeowners.
“Our view was that there’s a real opportunity throughout California on the community-banking side,” Sugarman said. “Most of the legacy community banks had difficulty over the past cycle and are no longer in the market.”
Providing capital to entrepreneurs, small businesses and borrowers seeking residential mortgages is a “shared interest” between the bank and Villaraigosa, according to Sugarman, who’s expecting the former mayor to help “develop and identify new markets.”
