BANKING AND FINANCE
Closing In: Another long-negotiated deal is now awaiting shareholder and regulatory approval. Monarch Bank in Laguna Niguel has agreed to acquire Laguna Bank in Laguna Beach in a stock swap.
The acquisition would give Laguna shareholders 22% of Monarch’s parent firm, Monarch Bancorp, and give 11-year-old Monarch Bank a total of more than $72 million in assets and three South County branches.
Under the terms of the acquisition, the money-losing, 9-year-old Laguna Bank would put three directors on the boards of Monarch Bank and its parent firm.
E. Lynn Caswell, Monarch’s president, said he expects the deal to close late this summer, about a year after the two sides had first reached a tentative agreement.
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