Bank of the Sierra acquires rival’s branch in Porterville

Bank of the Sierra has struck a deal to acquire the Porterville branch of Citizens Business Bank, just six blocks away from Sierra’s corporate headquarters.

The acquisition includes Citizens Business Bank’s deposits, which last summer amounted to about $21.8 million, as well as about $1 million in loans. The deal is subject to regulatory approval, but is expected to close in the second quarter of 2016.

The Citizens Business Bank branch is at 334 N. Main St. Sierra Bancorp, the Porterville-based parent company of Bank of the Sierra, said it plans to absorb operations of the Citizens Business Bank branch into its own branch at 90 N. Main St. Bank of the Sierra said it also plans to retain the Citizens Business Bank employees when the deal is completed.

The value of the acquisition was not disclosed by Sierra Bancorp.

Citizens Business Bank is a subsidiary of CVB Financial Corp, headquartered in San Bernardino County. In addition to its Porterville branch, CBB has only four other branches in the Valley: one each in Fresno, Madera, Tulare and Visalia. It has four branches in Kern County, and the rest of its 49 brick-and-mortar branches are in Southern California. The Porterville branch is one of CBB’s smallest by deposit totals.

Both Sierra Bancorp and CVB Financial Corp. are traded on Nasdaq. Sierra, traded under the stock symbol BSRR, closed Tuesday at $17.60 per share, up 4.64 percent from Monday’s closing. CVB, listed under the symbol CVBF, closed Tuesday at $14.74 per share, up 3.8 percent from Monday’s closing price.

This story was originally published January 26, 2016 at 2:57 PM with the headline "Bank of the Sierra acquires rival’s branch in Porterville."