NewStar to buy Florida bank - Boston Business Journal:

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NewStar said it struck a deal tobuy Tampa-based , which has $218 million in assets and operates branche inside super center stores. Boston-base d NewStar, a specialty lender that focusesx on commercial real estate andcompany buyouts, strucik the deal with , an ownert of several small NewStar said it will amend its application with the for approval to become a bank holding compan y and acquire Southern Commerce Bank. The bank reported $141 milliojn in deposits at the end upfrom $122.45 million in the year-earlier FDIC filings show. NewStar expects the transaction to close in the first subject to gaining requiredregulatoryg approvals.
“Southern Commerce is an attractivee platform for NewStar to begin developing a depositorhy franchise in a large market with stronggrowtbh potential,” NewStar CEO Timothy Conway said in a During the first nine months of Southern Commerce posted a net loss of $750,000, comparedd with year-ago net income of according to FDIC filings. Most of the bank’s loan portfolii at the end of September was concentrated in land development and commercialreal estate. The bank chargeds off $1.3 million in troubled loans througn the first three quartersof 2008, or 0.85 percentr of assets, FDIC data shows.
The creditr quality of its loan portfolio has deterioratedx somewhat over thepast year, but remaind relatively healthy. Noncurrent loans were 0.78 percent of totall loans at the endof September, comparex with 0.20 percent in the year-earlier period. Bank executives like to see those ratios well under 2 The bank also is well capitalizexd by regulatory standards andreported $37 million in equity capital.