Los Angeles-based Hope Bancorp has completed its merger with Honolulu-based Territorial Bancorp, Hope announced Wednesday.
Hope received regulatory nod last month – nearly a year after the lender announced its intention to buy Territorial for $78.6 million in stock.
Territorial Savings Bank will operate as Territorial Savings, a unit of Bank of Hope, the company said.
“We are excited to have completed this combination and to officially welcome Territorial customers and team members to the Bank of Hope family,” Kevin S. Kim, CEO of $17 billion-asset Hope Bancorp, said in a statement.
Bank of Hope has become the largest regional bank catering to multicultural customers across the continental U.S. and Hawaii with the merger's completion, he added.
Territorial shareholders will receive 0.8048 shares of Hope Bancorp common stock in exchange for each share of Territorial common stock they own, according to the press release.
The deal was expected to close by the end of 2024 but faced challenges. Hope’s bid for Territorial was followed by an offer from Blue Hill Advisors last August. The investor group swooped in with a $12-per-share cash offer and later bumped it up to $12.50 per share – compared with the $8.82-per-share, all-stock offer from Hope.
Territorial rejected Blue Hill’s advances three times and postponed a shareholder vote by nearly a month to continue discussions with investors and urge them to back the acquisition by Hope.
The Hawaii bank’s shareholders did, and reiterated their commitment to the lender’s offer.
The roughly $2.17 billion-asset Territorial, which has 28 branches throughout Honolulu, will expand Hope’s footprint and its reach, targeting Asian-American and Pacific Islander communities.
Hope Bancorp focuses on the Korean-American market, with 46 branches in California, Washington, Texas, Illinois, New York, New Jersey, Alabama, and Georgia.
In a note last month analysts at Keefe, Bruyette & Woods said Territorial “add[s] low-cost, granular deposits, which remains a core strategy for Hope.”
