Westlake-based RBB Bancorp, which recently raised $120 million in a debt offering to do an acquisition in the Asian American banking community, has elected 75-year-old James Kao as the bank’s new chairman, effective May 19.
Yee Phong “Alan” Thian, RBB’s previous chairman, will continue to serve as president and chief executive and remain a director.
RBB said the roles were split because the bank is growing and the $3.7 billion-in-assets institution wanted to better allocate responsibilities between the chairman and president and CEO roles.
Kao joined the bank’s board in 2015. He has more than 40 years of business experience, including a long career in the research division of Phillip Morris USA, the cigarette manufacturing unit of Richmond, Va.-based Altria Group Inc.
Thian has served as RBB's president and CEO since it began operating in 2008 and since it was formed in 2011.
"The board and I elected to separate the chairman and chief executive officer roles in anticipation of the continued growth of the bank and to reflect best corporate governance practices,” Thian said in a statement.
"I look forward to continuing to work with (Thian) to enhance long-term shareholder value," Kao said in a statement.
RBB executives were unavailable to comment.
On a conference call with analysts in April, RBB Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer David Morris confirmed the bank’s appetite for acquisitions.
“We are very interested in mergers and acquisitions, basically, in the San Francisco Bay Area, Texas, Seattle, and we would even expand with a merger here in Southern California if the analytics looked good,” Morris said.
In an interview, Morris said RBB would shop for a bank with assets in the $400 million to $500 million range on the low end and would seek institutions with as much as $1.2 billion in assets on the high end.
“There are a lot of banks out there that are smaller than us. We’d like to do something meaningful,” he said.
Royal Business Bank has long held a beachhead in Los Angeles. Louis Chang founded the bank in 2008 and expanded it through six acquisitions in Chinese American communities.
The acquisitions have given RBB a presence in the San Gabriel Valley, Alhambra, Buena Park, Rowland Heights and Torrance. The bank also has made acquisitions in Las Vegas, New Jersey and New York.
Last year, RBB entered the Chicago market for the first time with the January 2020 purchase of Pacific Global Bank, giving the company two branches in that city’s Chinatown and Bridgeport neighborhoods.
Royal Business Bank, which ranked No. 14 in the Business Journal’s 2020 list of the biggest banks in L.A. as measured in assets, has branches in California, Illinois, Nevada and New York.
