Enterprise entering New Mexico with Trinity Capital purchase

Enterprise Financial Services in Clayton, Mo., has agreed to buy Trinity Capital in Los Alamos, N.M.

The $5.5 billion-asset Enterprise said in a press release Thursday that it will pay $213 million in cash and stock for the $1.3 billion-asset parent of Los Alamos National Bank. The deal, which is expected to close early next year, priced Trinity at 202% of its tangible book value.

The deal helps fill a gap between Enterprise's operations in Kansas City, Mo., and Phoenix.

Trinity, the biggest bank in Los Alamos, has six branches, $714 million in loans and $1.1 billion in deposits. It is the fourth-biggest bank in Santa Fe, N.M., by deposit market share.

Trinity "has a deep history and commitment to … employees, customers and communities that is demonstrated by a dominant market share and extraordinary customer loyalty,” Jim Lally, Enterprise’s president and CEO, said in the release.

Enterprise said it expects the transaction to be immediately accretive to its 2019 diluted earnings per share, excluding merger-related expenses. It should take three years for Enterprise to earn back any dilution to its tangible book value.

Enterprise expects to cut about a third of Trinity’s annual noninterest expense, or roughly $13 million. The company said it will likely incur about $15.5 million in merger-related expenses.

Two Trinity directors — Tony Scavuzzo of Castle Creek Capital and James Deutsch of Patriot Financial Partners — will join Enterprise’s board.

The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency lifted a regulatory order against Los Alamos National in November 2017. Trinity was freed from an order with the Federal Reserve in February.

Wells Fargo Securities and Holland & Knight advised Enterprise. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods and Hunton Andrew Kurth advised Trinity.

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