A group of veteran local bankers is seeking to raise about $22 million to launch an independent business bank in Encino.
If all goes as planned, California United Bank would open in the first quarter of next year and target the small business market with non-real estate loans of up to $3.75 million and secured loans in amounts of up to $5.5 million to $6.25 million.
“We’re excited to be involved in bringing the bank back to the San Fernando Valley,” said David I. Rainer, president and chief executive of California United.
Rainer and California United’s chairman, Stephen G. Carpenter, teamed up in those same roles at another bank, also called California United Bank, which was swallowed up in the banking merger frenzy of the late 1990s. Since then, the independent bank sector has continued to churn.
In October, 7-year-old Encino State Bank was acquired by Boston Private Financial Holdings Inc., the holding company for First State Bank of California and other financial institutions.
When it was acquired for about $33 million, Encino State Bank had grown to three offices with $181 million in assets.
Carpenter, a retired banker, and Rainer built the first California United from two branches to 20 before it was acquired by Bank of Hawaii.
California United’s board includes Roberto Barragan, president of the Valley Economic Development Center, Kenneth Bernstein, chief operating officer of BFC Financial Corp. of Encino, Robert C. Bills, president and chief executive of Valley Presbyterian Hospital and Daniel F. Selleck, president of Selleck Development Group.
San Fernando Valley Business Journal
Broker Balks
Los Angeles-based commercial real estate brokerage CB Richard Ellis Group Inc. is suing one of its former brokers, Michael Burgio, for allegedly failing to pay back more than $800,000 he borrowed during a short stint at the firm, according to a report in the New York Daily News.
Burgio left CB Richard Ellis in August after two years, returning to rival Cushman & Wakefield Inc., where he had previously worked for 18 years. The loan was a draw against future commissions that Burgio took during his first year at CB Richard Ellis, the Daily News reported, citing a lawsuit filed in New York state.
Burgio declined to comment.
“We rarely litigate, and we took this step reluctantly,” CB Richard Ellis spokesman Steve Iaco told the Daily News. “But it’s important that people live up to their contracts.”
Asian Exports
Shipments to Asia are expected to take a bigger slice of the local export pie in 2005, with projected shipments of $4.3 billion surpassing a peak hit in 2000.
Driving the growth: a resurgent Japan, Orange County’s second largest market after Mexico, and South Korea, according to the report issued by Cal State Fullerton.
In addition, China is making a transition from being simply a producer to being both a producer and consumer of the world’s goods. The Fullerton report projects a 45 percent increase in shipments to China next year, for a total of $930 million in exports from Orange County. Just two years ago, the figure stood at $280 million.
Orange County Business Journal
