United Community Bank announced May 27 it is acquiring Aquesta and its subsidiary Aquesta Bank in a transaction worth about $131 million.
Based outside of Charlotte in Cornelius, North Carolina, Aquesta was founded by president and CEO Jim Engel in 2006. The bank has nine branches around Charlotte as well as in Wilmington, North Carolina. It runs loan production offices in Raleigh and in South Carolina — in both Greenville and Charleston. Aquesta reported total assets of $752 million and loans of $576 million in March 2021.
UCB has more than $18 billion in assets and has 161 offices in Florida, Georgia, North Carolina, Tennessee and South Carolina. The Georgia-headquartered bank announced in February that it plans to move its headquarters to Greenville. Earlier this month, UCB announced it was acquiring FinTrust Capital Partners in Greenville.
Related: United Community Bank to buy FinTrust Capital Partners
“We have been investing in Charlotte over the past several years and have commercial banking and mortgage teams already in place,” Lynn Harton, UCB chairman and CEO, said in a press release. “Aquesta is an exciting opportunity for us to increase our presence and accelerate our growth with a high-quality company that shares our values of customer service, employee engagement and community development.”
The acquisition’s value includes $12 million for outstanding stock options and warrants to acquire Aquesta common stock, according to the release.
“We’ve got to a size now that either we have to do something related to a significant capital raise in order to keep growing, or partner up with somebody with our resources,” said Engel. He added that Aquesta has had to turn away clients because their borrowing needs were too much for the bank to legally handle. “For the benefit of our customers, great opportunities for our employees to advance their careers and really to help our communities, we really felt like this was a great fit.
Harton said no branches will close due to the merger.
“We continue to look at other markets in the southeast. We have had two bank deals going on at one time in the past, so we have the capacity to do another bank deal in the next several months, potentially, if that arises,” said Harton.
UCB and Aquesta expect the deal to be completed in the fourth quarter of 2021. The transaction is still awaiting regulatory approval and the approval of Aquesta’s stockholders.
This article has been updated to include comments from Lynn Harton and Jim Engel.
