LYNNWOOD — The holding company for Lynnwood’s Prime Pacific Bank has entered into an agreement to be acquired by Bend, Oregon-based Bank of the Cascades.
The deal allows Prime Pacific to join a growing bank with nearly $3 billion in assets that’s headquartered in the Pacific Northwest, said Glenn Deutsch, Prime Pacific’s president and CEO.
“For our customers, I think they’re going to have a better breadth of products and services,” Deutsch said. “That will be a great thing for them.”
The merger allows Bank of the Cascades to grow its presence in the Puget Sound area. Now, the bank has only a five-person commercial loan center in Seattle, which opened last year. Cascade’s president and CEO Terry Zink said he loves the size of Seattle and the energy of the area.
“It’s a great market,” said Terry Zink, Cascade’s president and CEO. “I was up there last week and I was just amazed at the number of cranes you see around the city. It’s hard to imagine being a premier Northwest bank and not being in Seattle.”
Under the agreement, Cascade will acquire Prime Pacific with its three locations — the headquarters in Lynnwood, a branch in Mill Creek and one in Kenmore in north King County. As of Dec. 31, Prime Pacific had $119.4 million in assets, $94.7 million in net loans, $104.8 million in total deposits. The banks will take on the Bank of the Cascades name.
Holders of Prime Pacific common stock will receive 0.305 shares of Cascade stock. Based on a $5.86 closing price on Friday for Cascade common stock, shareholders would receive $1.79 per share, for a total cost of $17.1 million. The actual price would be based on a 20-day average of Cascades’ stock five days before closing.
The merger still needs to be approved by Prime Pacific’s shareholders and banking regulators. If it is approved, the deal is expected to close by the third quarter of this year.
Prime Pacific had entered into an agreement to be acquired by Everett’s Coastal Community Bank last year, but the deal was voted down by Prime Pacific shareholders in October.
Deutsch said he felt confident that his shareholders would approve this deal.
In a statement, Prime Pacific Chairman Timothy J. McMahon said, “In entering into this agreement with Cascade, the board of Prime Pacific believes that is has both obtained a solid value for our shareholders and also found an excellent partner for our customers and employees going forward.”
Bank of the Cascades, founded in 1977, has been growing.
In addition to opening the Seattle office last year, Bank of the Cascades last fall announced the purchase of 15 former Bank of America branches, three in Washington, and now has 51 branches in Oregon, Washington and Idaho.
“They’re bigger but they’re still a community bank,” Deutsch said. “They’re very tied to the communities that they serve. Overall, they are very entrenched in the individual markets they serve.”
Zink said that he and Deutsch have been talking on and off for several months about putting together the banks and using Cascade’s capital to make more loans in the Seattle market. He said the bank will employ people with strong ties to the area. The president for Washington, Brandon Elieff, is from Seattle.
“I think the biggest thing is we’re a community bank,” Zink said. “We do believe in investing in the local community. It’s much different than the big national banks.”
Talk to us
> Give us your news tips.
> Send us a letter to the editor.
> More Herald contact information.
