Orange County banks can expect to see local businesses take a more proactive approach to growth plans next year, according to Ted Tragos, a market manager with Bank of America Merrill Lynch.
Costa Mesa-based Tragos cited “increased optimism” regarding the U.S. economy and “more interest in international trade” as factors behind the positive outlook.
“Businesses are looking to expand into new markets, introduce new products and/or merge or acquire other companies,” he said. “Working capital will be important to help achieve these goals.”
Venture capital investments, at least in the healthcare sector, will likely continue on an active pace, said Bill Link, co-founder and managing director of healthcare-focused investment firm Versant Ventures.
“In my view, the fundamentals of the healthcare venture market continue to be strong,” he said, “and IPO activity has continued to be fairly strong, as well.”
On the job front: A recent forecast by Chapman University said the number of OC’s financial-sector jobs is expected grow by 1% next year to 118,013. It projected that OC’s total employment will grow about 2.5% to pass the 1,582,000 mark.
Company to Watch Core Commercial Bank
Core Commercial, a new bank, is in the works to open in Orange County.
Chief Banking Officer Darrell Daniel and Chief Credit Officer Jonathan Sigal are based in a temporary office in Irvine while the would-be headquarters in Newport Beach is undergoing construction.
The application to establish the bank, initially filed in July with the state Department of Business Oversight, was approved in mid-November. Core Commercial is the first bank to be approved in California and the third nationwide since the recession.
Daniel and Sigal worked with Irvine-based advisory firm Carpenter & Co. to launch it. Carpenter & Co., headed by Edward Carpenter, has helped hundreds of financial institutions start and grow.
OC’s crop of local banks has grown steadily in recent years, thanks to an improving economy that’s buoyed loan demand and due to a number of acquisitions to increase scale. It will be worth following how a new bank might affect the local market.
Person to Watch Rob Healy
Healy is co-founder and managing director of private equity firm L Squared Capital Partners, a newcomer to Orange County. L Squared, established by former Chicago Growth Partners executives, opened in Newport Beach about a year ago and “just got done hiring, fully staffing up” for a team of eight, Healy said.
OC has several active private equity firms, each with unique characteristics and concentrations, that make up a diverse group of investors. We’ll be watching the new deals Healy will oversee in 2016 and how he’ll help grow the two companies it acquired during the firm’s first year.
L Squared is backed by ultra-high-net-worth families and plans to invest $40 million to $100 million a year, Healy said, adding that there’s currently a deal in the pipeline.
It has invested in Virtium, a memory products maker in Rancho Santa Margarita, and owns Bethesda, Md.-based educational materials company Teaching Strategies LLC.
