RMG Capital Corp., the Fullerton parent company of Fullerton Community Bank, has agreed to sell to Opus Bank in Irvine for $50 million in cash.Fullerton Community Bank was established in 1927. It is a federally chartered savings bank with $681.9 million in assets. It has eight offices in Anaheim, Brea, Fullerton, Garden Grove and Yorba Linda.
Opus Bank is a state-chartered commercial bank with $708 million in assets and branches in Manhattan Beach, Rancho Palos Verdes/San Pedro, Redondo Beach, Rolling Hills Estates, and Torrance.
It changed its name from Bay Cities National Bank last fall upon a $460 million recapitalization and ownership change in which headquarters remained in Redondo Beach but administrative and executive offices moved to Irvine. It had been founded as a national bank in 1982.
Since the reorganization, Opus has made moves toward its strategy to become a “strong, super-regional banking franchise,” according to Chairman Stephen H. Gordon.
It has announced the purchase of Cascade Financial Corp. in Washington for $21.8 million. It recently said it was signing leases for new banking offices in Encino, Beverly Hills, West Los Angeles, Corona del Mar, Newport Coast, Irvine, and La Jolla.
Fullerton Community Bank has an active small-business lending department under the U.S. Small Business Administration’s guaranteed loan programs. And Opus recently won approval as a preferred SBA lender, a designation that is supposed to expedite the federally guaranteed loan process.
At year-end, with the Cascade and RMG purchases, Opus Bank expects to have nearly $3.0 billion of total assets and 42 banking offices on the West Coast.
“As we opportunistically acquire financial institutions to complement our organic growth, we look to partner with those institutions that have a long and respected heritage and a philosophical approach to banking consistent with that of Opus Bank,” Gordon said. “The founders, board members, executive management teams and employees of both Fullerton Community Bank and Opus Bank share a common mission to provide much needed capital funding and liquidity into our local economies, thereby enabling revenue, income, and job growth. We believe that this liquidity is the critical addition that is necessary to drive the revitalization of our communities.”
The boards of directors for Opus and RMG have approved the transaction, which values RMG common stock at $17.47 a share. Opus Bank will assume obligations for trust preferred securities and RMG preferred stock. The deal is expected to close in the fourth quarter.
Opus said that at the close of the transaction, the Opus Community Foundation intends to award grants to local nonprofit organizations in the communities served by Fullerton Community Bank.
By Jan Norman
Ms. Norman is the business reporter for the OC Register
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