Coastal Bancorp, a $3 billion-asset Houston thrift, said it would buy 12 branches, $357 million of deposits, and $175 million of loans for an undisclosed price from Pacific Southwest Bank of Corpus Christi, Tex.
The agreement, which was announced last Monday and is expected to close in the third quarter, signaled an end to the effort to sell $1.2 billion- asset Pacific Southwest as a unit. Coastal is buying branches in the Rio Grande Valley to bolster its presence there.
The smaller thrift's parent company, Pacific USA Holdings Corp. of Dallas, said Tuesday that it would retain more than half of its $950 million of deposits and most of its assets.
In December, International Bancshares, a $4.2 billion-asset commercial bank based in Laredo, Tex., broke off discussions to buy the whole thrift. Its executives said it could not hash out a suitable agreement.
In January it had seemed that Compass Bancshares of Birmingham, Ala., was close to buying the thrift. But Pacific USA was unable to reach a deal.
Pradeep Bhargava, managing director of Pacific USA, declined to say how much it had expected to realize from a sale of the thrift, beyond saying he wanted a "good market price." He said the branches were too spread out to attract one buyer.
Pacific is negotiating to sell another three branches with about $100 million of deposits to a second buyer, Mr. Bhargava said. These branches are in Laredo, Seguin, and Gonzales.
The parent company said it wanted to sell the thrift to focus on its consumer finance business. After the deal with Coastal, Pacific would retain 17 branches and about $500 million of deposits, all in Corpus Christi and the southern Gulf Coast of Texas.
Mr. Bhargava said those branches could be sold later.
Coastal chief executive officer Manuel J. Mehos said his company had earlier bid for but failed to win a portion of Pacific Southwest.
Negotiations between Pacific Southwest and Coastal resumed a few weeks ago, Mr. Mehos said.
The acquisition would complement Coastal's operations, he added. "This gives us enough density to run a good business" in the Rio Grande Valley, he said.
