CIB Marine Bancshares Inc. of Pewaukee, Wis., said Friday that it is selling CIB Bank Chicago to the $7.3 billion-asset First Banks Inc. of St. Louis for $62 million in cash.
The deal is part of the $3.1 billion-asset CIB Marine's efforts to recover after running into trouble last year.
In April the company announced that it expects to report a loss of $135 million to $155 million for last year, mostly because of bad credits and a writedown in the value of its assets.
In June it said it had reached an agreement with the Federal Reserve to improve risk management and corporate governance.
A large part of the problem loans were at the $1.3 billion-asset CIB Bank, which has 16 branches in Chicago and its suburbs.
CIB Marine said the sale would strengthen its capital ratios and reduce its troubled assets in compliance with regulatory orders. The transaction is expected to close in the fourth quarter. As a result of the deal, the board of directors has canceled plans to put Citrus Bank and Marine Bank on the block. Between them the banks have branches in Florida, Arizona, Nevada, and Nebraska.
CIB Marine also said it had sold a substantial portion of the assets of its Mortgage Services Inc. of Bloomington, Ill., on Aug. 12.
It did not name the buyer but said it was in final negotiations with a prospective buyer of the subsidiary's remaining operations.
