Los Robles, Goleta Banks Call Off Partnership Plan

There are more financial fish in the sea.

That’s the approach Los Robles Bank President Bob Hamilton is taking with plans to combine his Thousand Oaks institution with another community bank.

Earlier this year Los Robles Bancorp, parent company of Los Robles Bank, signed a letter of intent with Goleta National Bank to join the two operations to form a multibank holding company. That planned transaction has been called off.

But Hamilton said the business strategy--intended to allow small institutions to maintain their independence while sharing operating costs and services--is still sound, and Los Robles Bank will continue to seek potential partners.

“It’s still a great idea and I think it will still work with the right partners,” Hamilton said. “We just discovered that we weren’t the right partners for each other.”

The original plan for Los Robles and Goleta banks called for the formation of Community West Bancshares, a holding company that would be governed by six members from each bank. The company would have accepted additional banks, providing they were well-established, well-run and had assets of $50 million to $100 million.

As negotiations progressed with the Goleta bank, however, differences of opinion became evident, Hamilton said.

“There are so many different types of corporate cultures, it’s hard to intertwine them,” he said. “That’s the reason they call us independent banks. We have different ways of doing things.”

Hamilton declined to detail the differences of opinion but said one stumbling block was the number of people that officials of each bank thought was needed to run the holding company.

“We just decided that we’re both doing well; maybe this is not the time,” he said.

Goleta National Bank had 1996 year-end assets of $80.7 million, with Los Robles Bank at $93.5 million. A the conclusion of the second quarter of 1997, ended June 30, Los Robles Bank reported assets of $103.5 million.

Given its current growth, Hamilton said, he and other bank officials are in no rush to merge or otherwise team up with another bank. But he said they are keeping their eyes open.

“If [an opportunity] falls on us we’re ready to do it, but we’re not in a panic,” he said. “We’ve been talking to a couple of people, but talking’s talking. Coming to fruition is a whole other ball game, as we found out.”

Like Hamilton, officials at Goleta National Bank still are looking for opportunities.

“We do still intend to form Community West Bancshares, it just will not be between Los Robles and Goleta,” said Linda Pullon, vice president and controller of Goleta National Bank. “We think it’s a wonderful plan and nothing has changed because we weren’t able to do a deal.”