Mountain Parks buying Financial Holdings Inc.

Mountain Parks Financial Corp. has signed a definitive agreement to acquire Financial Holdings Inc. in a cash deal for an undisclosed amount.

Financial Holdings' subsidiary banks, Boulder Valley Bank and Trust and the Bank of Louisville, Colo., have combined assets of $83.1 million, loans of $60.4 million, and deposits of $76.5 million.

"We think their philosophy matches ours," said John C. Rudolph, president of Financial Holdings, who will remain president of the Boulder bank. "They're interested in personalized service to small to midsize customers."

Although $261 million-asset Mountain Parks is based in Minneapolis, where its president lives, its three banks operate in 10 central Colorado communities and metropolitan Denver.

"The Boulder market is really a strong market for the kind of entrepreneurial businesses we have financed," said Dennis M. Mathisen, Mountain Parks' president and chief executive, who also owns the Harlem Globetrotters. "We already do a lot of business up there."

The deal is expected to be completed in the first quarter of 1995, subject to regulatory approval.

The company's stockholders have been involved in Colorado banking since 1976 and formed the holding company in 1981. It went public in 1993.

Like many bank companies, Mountain Parks' strategy has been to grow by acquisition, said Raymond Cabillot, an analyst with Piper Jaffray Inc. in Minneapolis. "This one sticks out as one [company] that's been able to do it, and do it effectively," he said.

Mountain Parks posted a third-quarter return on assets of 2.34% and return in equity of 30.27%, as well as an efficiency ratio of about 54%.

"It's one of the most profitable banks you'll ever see," said Jay Tejera, a bank analyst in the Seattle office of Dain Bosworth Inc. "Insiders own 65% of the company. It's their money, so they don't want to waste it."

Because the state didn't change its unit banking laws until 1990, there's plenty of room for consolidation among the 200-plus independent banks, Mr. Tejera said. Organizations like Mountain Parks are snapping up smaller banks and, in turn, may eventually be acquired by larger regionals, he said.

"He has a price at which he is a buyer and a price at which he is a seller," Mr. Tejera said of Mr. Mathisen, who previously owned a chain of community banks in Minnesota and had a large interest in a Minnesota mortgage company.

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