Wealth-management holding co. gets firmer footing in the Puget Sound area. Boston Private Financial has agreed to buy Bellevue, Wash.-based Charter Bank in a bid to strengthen its position in the lucrative Puget Sound area of the Pacific Northwest.

Charter Bank's common shareholders will get $26.5 million in cash and 1.39 million shares of Boston Private common stock for a total transaction value of around $70.8 million, based on Boston Private's closing stock price on 2 March 2007. The acquisition is expected to be completed by the end of September 2007.

"The acquisition of Charter Bank underscores our strategy of acquiring high-performing, well-run companies with strong potential upside that also expand our reach into markets where high levels of intellectual capital are generating new pockets of affluence," says Boston Private's chairman and CEO Timothy Vaill. "Charter Bank's experienced and respected management team, strong foothold in the economically vibrant Seattle area, and focus on providing the highest levels of customer service make it an ideal addition to the Boston Private family."

Logical step

Puget Sound is a fast-growing region in terms both of population and affluence, fueled in part by Boeing's resurgence and on-going expansion at Microsoft, Starbucks and Costco. Median household income in the region is nearly 34% higher than the national median. Growth in demand for loans, deposit services and investment products reflects the expansion of this affluent demographic, according to a Boston Private.

Keith Jackson, Charter Bank's chairman and CEO, will stay on in that role as will the bank's president Terry Peterson and its CFO Richard Darrow. Boston Private says it expects this team to help make Charter Bank "an integral part of its wealth-management strategy in the Pacific Northwest."

Jackson says the deal with Boston private "is the next logical step for Charter Bank, better positioning us to more effectively provide exceptional banking and business services to our clients throughout the Puget Sound region."

Charter had around $322 million in total assets at the end of 2006, $249 million in total deposits and $3.0 million in net income. Over the last five years Charter Bank has achieved compound annual growth rates of approximately 18% for total assets, 16% for total deposits and an impressive 38% in net income.

Boston Private has had a stake in Bellevue-based multifamily office Coldstream Capital Management, which also has an office in Portland, Ore., since 2002.

Walter Pressey, Boston Private's president, says that the addition of Charter Bank's private-banking to Coldstream's asset-management and family-office services puts Boston Private on the map in the Pacific Northwest, "a region we have targeted for some time."

In addition to Coldstream, Boston Private has 13 affiliates focused on private banking, investment management and wealth advisory in New England, California, New York and Southern Florida. -FWR

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