Cathay General Bancorp on Tuesday submitted its first formal bid for Great Eastern Bank, offering $58.44 per share to acquire the five-branch community bank in New York.

The L.A.-based holding company for Cathay Bank said the offer is $5 more than the bid by rival UCBH Holdings Inc., less the $5 million break-up fee that Great Eastern would have to pay UCBH if its buyout bid is not accepted.

UCBH had originally offered $60 per share, or $103.7 million, for Great Eastern, but that amount was scaled back to $56.33, or $97.4 million, due to a revised appraisal of two buildings Great Eastern uses for its Midtown Manhattan and Flushing, N.Y., offices, according to an SEC filing on Dec. 12. Factoring in the $2.90 per share from the break-up fee, Cathay said its new offer is $5 per share more than UCBH’s bid.

For several months, Cathay has been in stiff competition with rival San Francisco-based UCBH for the acquisition. In December, Cathay scaled the last hurdle in acquiring Great Eastern after winning approval from state regulators to buy 100 percent of the bank’s stock. Cathay won approval in mid-December from the Federal Reserve to acquire Great Eastern.

In October, Cathay exercised options to buy 41 percent of Great Eastern’s outstanding shares from dissident shareholders.

Analysts say the most likely scenario is that Great Eastern will put the UCBH offer to a shareholder vote but it will not get the required two-thirds approval, since Cathay General is expected to block the bid.

At that point, Great Eastern would have to pay UCBH a $5 million break-up fee, paving the way for Cathay to conduct its own due diligence for a merger.

However, analysts are not certain if Cathay will prevail because management of Cathay and Great Eastern have not negotiated a deal.

*Reporter Kate Berry contributed to this story.