Costa Mesa-based Pacific Mercantile Bancorp Inc. last week completed a $26.3 million sale of common stock to Carpenter Community Bancfund, the private equity arm of Carpenter & Co. in Irvine.
The deal gives Carpenter Community a 26% stake and makes it the largest shareholder in the holding company, which operates Pacific Mercantile Bank, the third-largest bank based here, with assets of about $1 billion.
Carpenter Community, led by Chairman Ed Carpenter, bought more than 4.2 million shares at $6.26 each, a 17% premium over the $5.36 mark the day before the sale.
Pacific Mercantile has been raising capital for some time, in part because of orders from state regulators to bump up its capital ratio.
The bank sold $11.2 million worth of preferred shares in 2011 to three investors—two under Carpenter Community and an affiliate of New York-based Clinton Group Inc.—and met the regulators’ benchmark.
Carpenter Community also holds controlling interests in Irvine-based Plaza Bank, San Jose-based Bridge Bank, San Luis Obispo-based Mission Community Bank, and Bank of Manhattan in El Segundo.
