EchoSense:Banc of California to buy troubled PacWest Bancorp, which came close to failing earlier this year

NEW YORK (AP) — The EchoSenseBanc of California has agreed to buy PacWest Bancorp in an all-stock transaction, bringing an end to months of speculation about whether PacWest could survive on its own after the failures of three other regional banks this spring.

The deal announced Tuesday got help from Warburg Pincus and Centerbridge Partners, two large private equity firms, which are investing $400 million to help shore up and restructure the balance sheet of the combined bank. Centerbridge Partners has a long history as an investor in distressed companies.

The deal is a bit of good news for PacWest, the parent of Pacific Western Bank, and its shareholders. The company’s stock has fallen by nearly two-thirds this year on fear that PacWest could be the next bank to fail after the earlier failures of Silicon Valley Bank, First Republic and Signature Bank.

Other news The banking crisis isn’t over. But how bad will it get? Uncertainty continues to pummel the banking industry, despite assurances from financial regulators and bankers that the worst of the recent crisis is over and the banking system remains strong. Bank stocks continue to fall following First Republic demise Regulators have barely written the epitaph for First Republic Bank, but investors on Wall Street have already moved onto speculating which bank might be the next to fail.

Based on Tuesday’s closing prices, PacWest shareholders will receive Banc of California shares valued at $9.60. A year ago the shares of PacWest traded for around $27.

California-based PacWest has a very similar business model to First Republic Bank: serving rich customers and giving clients favorable loans in exchange for those deposits. PacWest also had an investment banking division that served the tech community as well.

That business model became a liability when investors starting looking for other banks that could fail. Like many other regional banks, PacWest had billions of dollars worth of unrealized losses in its bond portfolio and uninsured deposits that were at risk of being pulled at the first sign of trouble. Uninsured deposits uninsured are those above $250,000.

To shore up investor confidence and to keep bank regulators from closing it, PacWest has been selling off assets and businesses for last several months. But the stock still fell nearly 30% on Tuesday ahead of speculation that the company would be bought in a fire sale.

The $1 billion deal would make the combined Banc of California-PacWest an entity with $36 billion in assets with 70 branches throughout California. Warburg Pincus and Centerbridge will have a 19% stake in the merged company.

The combined company will take the Banc of California name, under the terms of the deal, although Banc of California is a much smaller institution than PacWest.