Gilmore Bank, a small Fairfax District lender and one of Los Angeles County’s oldest banks, will be acquired later this year by downtown L.A. bank holding company Grandpoint Capital Inc.
Financial terms of the deal, announced last week and expected to close in the next few months, were not disclosed.
Stan Savage, director of business development for Gilmore Bank parent company A.F. Gilmore Co., said the company had been approached by several interested buyers. The sale will allow it to focus more on other holdings. Those include the Fairfax District’s Farmers Market; the land under Caruso Affiliated’s Grove shopping center; and the new Gilmore Station shopping center across Fairfax Avenue from the market, along with other properties.
“This is purely a business decision made by the board of directors of A.F. Gilmore Co.,” Savage said. “We’re doing this from a position of strength. We’re going to focus on other holdings and assets.”
Gilmore Bank, one of the smallest in the county, has assets of $177 million and just two offices – its headquarters at Farmers Market and a branch in La Canada-Flintridge. Grandpoint plans to merge Gilmore into its Grandpoint Bank, one of three banks owned by the holding company. Grandpoint Bank has assets of $1.2 billion and nine branches in California and Arizona.
Savage said he believed Grandpoint Bank intended to keep both Gilmore locations open.
Grandpoint Capital executives did not return calls for comment.
Gilmore Bank was founded in 1955 by Earl Bell Gilmore, whose family had land holdings since the late 1800s and discovered oil around the turn of the century. The family founded the Gilmore Oil Co., which became part of Mobil Oil Co. in the 1940s.
Cinedigm Offering
Cinedigm Digital Cinema Corp. closed a public offering last week, raising $4.8 million it plans to use to add more films to its growing library.
It’s the latest in a series of moves Cinedigm has made in the past 18 months as the company expands beyond its original business of providing financing to help theaters make the transition from 35 millimeter film to digital projection. It’s now trying to become a film distributor.
Cinedigm, headquartered in New York but with top executives in Century City and Woodland Hills, acquired a New York film distribution company in April 2012, and recently signed an eight-year, multimillion-dollar distribution deal with streaming movie leader Netflix Inc. Through its previous acquisitions, Cinedigm owns distribution rights to 20,000 movies and television shows.
Cinedigm, which trades on the Nasdaq, priced the offering at $1.38 on June 26, a 10 percent discount to the stock’s closing price of $1.53 the previous day.
Eric Wold, an analyst in the San Francisco office of West L.A. brokerage B. Riley & Co., said the new cash should give the company the ability to grab attractive film libraries when they become available. He doesn’t expect the company to raise money through additional offerings, and it should soon start to see more revenue from its growing library.
B. Riley advised Cinedigm on the offering.
QB Trade
Former Bruin quarterback Cade McNown had a short-lived National Football League career. Since then, he’s been quietly building his resume as an investment manager.
He’s worked for the wealth management division of UBS and in the local office of JP Morgan Private Bank, and last month moved to a smaller shop: Beverly Hills’ Lourd Capital Management.
Blaine Lourd, the firm’s chief executive, said he’s hoping McNown, a first-round draft pick in 1999 who played for the Bears, Dolphins and 49ers, will help build up the firm’s client roster of pro athletes.
“We’ve got 25 players, probably 15 of which were first-round picks in the NFL draft. I think he can help us there,” Lourd said. “Athletes, they listen to me. But if you’re a first-round draft pick, they listen a little more.”
Lourd Capital has about $2.5 billion in assets under management and 17 employees.
C-Suite News
David K. Murdock, no relation to Dole Food Co. billionaire David H. Murdock, has joined Silvercrest Asset Management as managing partner of the New York firm’s Century City office. He was formerly with the local office of Northern Trust Corp. … Peter Koh has been promoted to chief credit officer of Wilshire Bancorp Inc. He had been deputy chief credit officer. … San Francisco’s Union Bank N.A. has added two bankers to its residential lending group in Los Angeles: Chris Morris, previously a senior vice president with Bank of America, joined Union Bank as regional sales manager; Craig Filson, formerly a regional manager with US Bank, joined as regional manager.
Staff reporter James Rufus Koren can be reached at [email protected] or (323) 549-5225, ext. 225.
