UCBH Holdings Inc. of San Francisco announced Friday that it had received regulatory approvals from the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. and California Department of Financial Institutions to complete its deal for the $310 million-asset Great Eastern Bank in New York.
But it still needs the approval of Great Eastern's shareholders, and that may not be as easy to obtain.
Cathay General Bancorp Inc. in Los Angeles is also bidding for Great Eastern, and it has offered the bank's shareholders a total of $112 million - well above the $97.4 million that the $7.3 billion-asset UCBH has bid.
Cathay, with $6 billion of assets, has been doing its negotiating directly with Great Eastern's shareholders and says it has commitments to acquire 41% of the outstanding shares. That is more than enough to scuttle UCBH's deal, since under New York law it must receive the support of two thirds of the shareholders.
The New York State Banking Department cleared Cathay to begin buying Great Eastern shares on Dec. 19. The Federal Reserve gave its approval Dec. 13.
Cathay obtained options to buy the 41% stake after soliciting Great Eastern's shareholders this fall. But the action so angered Great Eastern's directors that they began negotiating with UCBH, which made its bid in October. All three companies focus on serving Asian-American business owners.
