RBB entering San Francisco market with latest deal

RBB Bancorp in Los Angeles will enter the San Francisco market after it buys Gateway Bank in Oakland.

The $3.8 billion-asset RBB said in a press release Tuesday that it will pay $22.9 million in cash for the $172 million-asset Gateway. The deal is expected to close in the second quarter. 

Gateway has on branch, $123 million of loans and $148 million of deposits. The bank primarily serves Asian-American communities around the San Francisco Bay. 

"Expansion into the Bay Area, with one of the largest Asian-American communities in the United States, has long been a goal of ours,” Alan Thian, RBB’s president and CEO, said in the release. “We are excited to enter this market and bring our relationship-based banking model to the Bay Area.” 

RBB said it expects the transaction to be accretive to its 2022 earnings per share in the mid-single digits. It should take less than two years for RBB to earn back a projected 1.8% dilution to its tangible book value.

RBB plans to cut about 60% of Gateway’s annual noninterest expenses.

Findley Group and Loren P. Hansen advised RBB. Janney Montgomery Scott and Godfrey & Kahn advised Gateway.