Millennium Bancshares Corp. in Reston, Va., said Monday that it plans to sell its two branches in the Richmond area to EVB, the banking unit of Eastern Virginia Bankshares in Tappahannock.
The deal price was not disclosed.
Millennium said that the sale would include $88.9 million in deposits and $44.3 million of loans. It also said EVB would retain the branches' employees.
The sale would leave the $560 million-asset Millennium with four branches in Northern Virginia.
The company, which decided a year ago to close its mortgage subsidiaries and return its focus to community banking, had a net loss of $1.6 million in the quarter ended Sept. 30 because of credit-quality woes in mortgages it originated last year. It also had a net loss of $251,000 in the quarter ended June 30, due partly to commercial loan credit quality.
The branch sale "is a critical step in getting Millennium back on track," Richard Linhart, the president and chief executive officer of the company and its Millennium Bank subsidiary, said in a press release.
The sale also would shrink the bank's balance sheet, enhance its capital, and improve its liquidity, he said. Joe Shearin, EVB's president and CEO, said in a press release his company is "excited" about the deal, which would give it 25 branches and $1 billion of assets. EVB also said the purchase is expected to be neutral to slightly accretive to 2008 earnings and accretive to 2009 earnings.
The deal is expected to close in the first quarter.
