Umpqua Holdings Corp. is open to buying Washington banks in the 175-mile stretch from Portland, Ore., its hometown, to the Seattle area, where it will plant the flag with a first branch early next year.
David Edson, the president of Umpqua Bank’s Oregon and Washington division, said that the Bellevue, Wash., branch would be a step toward a Seattle-to-Sacramento franchise but that more is needed to fill out its footprint in Washington.
“We are first and foremost interested in organic growth in the markets we currently serve, but we have a long history of being opportunistic when acquisition opportunities come our way,” Mr. Edson said.
Umpqua, which has assets of $4.9 billion, has increased its assets more than tenfold since the beginning of 2000, mainly by buying five banks.
This year it entered California by acquiring the $1.5 billion-asset Humboldt Bancorp of Roseville, whose 27 branches in northern California include four in the fast-growing Sacramento area.
Umpqua closed its $338 million deal for Humboldt in July.
Though Mr. Edson would not say what acquisition deals Umpqua may have in the works, he said it plans to open five to 10 branches a year in markets from Seattle to Sacramento.
Robert J. Rogowski, a principal at Columbia Financial Advisors Inc. in Seattle, said that to make a dent in the Seattle area, Umpqua would need to buy banks in addition to opening new branches.
The plan to open the Bellevue branch was announced Nov. 4.
“It’s a very competitive world up here in Seattle, and for Umpqua to own, say, 5% of the market, they’re going to have to do an acquisition here,” Mr. Rogowski said. “My sense is that they’ll do a substantive acquisition in the greater Puget Sound area so that they can have more market share sooner rather than later.”
Still, he said, choosing Bellevue for a branch was a smart move. Belleview is home to many of the region’s high-tech companies, which tend to be entrepreneurial, so they and their employees would be very receptive to Umpqua’s style of branches, Mr. Rogowski said.
Umpqua branches, which it calls stores, feature Internet kiosks, lounges where customers can get Umpqua-branded coffee, and sales associates roaming the floor.
The bank has been rolling out a second generation of stores that have the look of an art gallery, an Internet cafe, and a luxury hotel lobby all rolled into one. (The Bellevue branch, a loan production office that Umpqua is converting, will have the new design format.)
The company would entertain acquisition opportunities in eastern Washington and markets south of Sacramento, but it would rather concentrate on growing along the Interstate 5 corridor between Seattle and the California capital, Mr. Edson said.
