Popular Community Bank closes sale of Illinois branches
Popular Community Bank’s footprint will be significantly scaled back as a result of branch sales in California, Illinois and Central Florida.
Popular Inc. announced Monday that Popular Community Bank, its U.S. banking subsidiary, completed the previously announced sale of its Illinois regional operations to First Midwest Bank, the wholly owned subsidiary of First Midwest Bancorp Inc.
As part of the transaction, PCB sold its 12 branches in the Chicago metropolitan area, including $562 million in loans and $726 million in deposits, each as of July 31, 2014.
The transaction is expected to result in a net premium of approximately $18.4 million, before customary transaction related costs.
This transaction is part of the previously announced strategic reorganization of Popular Inc.’s U.S. operations, which includes divesting PCB’s regional operations in California, Illinois and Central Florida and the centralization of certain back office operations in Puerto Rico and New York.
The bank entered into definitive agreements to sell 41 branches, approximately $1.8 billion in related loan portfolios, and approximately $2.1 billion in deposits, to three different buyers.
The sales of the Central Florida and California regional operations are expected to close prior to the end of 2014.
RBC Capital Markets, LLC acted as financial advisor to Popular. Sullivan & Cromwell LLP, New York, NY, and Chuhak & Tecson, P.C., Chicago, IL, acted as legal counsels to Popular.
