UnionBanCal to Buy Monterey Bay Bancorp

UnionBanCal Corp., parent company of Union Bank of California, agreed to acquire Monterey Bay Bancorp Inc. for $96.5 million in cash and stock to add branches in the Monterey area.

UnionBanCal, which is headquartered in San Francisco and has branches in Washington state and Oregon as well as California, will pay about $48.3 million in cash and 1.1 million to 1.34 million of its shares for all of Monterey Bay’s shares outstanding.

Monterey Bay has $610 million in assets and 130 workers in eight branches. UnionBanCal has about $40.2 billion in assets and 283 branches.

It’s the fourth announced acquisition for UnionBanCal in the last 12 months. Shares of UnionBanCal fell 13 cents to $40 on the New York Stock Exchange. They had fallen 8.7% in the last year. Monterey Bay shares rose $5.67, or 28%, to $25.82 on Nasdaq.