Global goes after Colonial’s Nevada loans

The New York investment company that is negotiating to buy the Nevada deposits and 21 branches of Colonial Bank from BB&T Corp. also may buy the bank's Nevada loans, a source said Monday.

Global Consumer Acquisition Corp. in July announced an agreement to buy some of the Nevada assets of Colonial Bank, but Colonial was seized before the deal could be closed.

Since then, Global has started negotiations with BB&T Corp., which acquired deposits of the Alabama-based regional bank on Aug. 14.

Global also intends to buy 1st Commerce Bank of North Las Vegas from Michigan-based Capitol Bancorp and move Colonial's assets to 1st Commerce. Western Liberty Bancorp will be the holding company for 1st Commerce.

Global, however, said the purchases of Colonial's deposits and the acquisition of 1st Commerce are not contingent on each other.

"We believe our shareholders would prefer that we close on the purchase of 1st Commerce and continue to pursue several pools of attractively priced Nevada assets and deposits that we expect to become available in the coming months," Jason Ader, chairman of Western Liberty, said in a statement.

Global Consumer Acquisition Corp. is believed to be interested in acquiring assets from failed Community Bank, the source said. The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. will be selling pools of loans, and the purchase of one or more pools would give the new 1st Commerce Bank earning assets, which might be available at deep discounts, a separate banking insider said.

Global hopes to complete the acquisition of Colonial deposits and assets, as well as 1st Commerce Bank, in time to hold a shareholder vote on the acquisitions on Sept. 30.

If the deals are completed as planned, Western Liberty would be a successor corporation and would replace Global as a publicly held company.

Global is a company that was specifically organized for doing a merger, stock or asset purchase, joint venture or other business combination. It has institutional shareholders including Hayground Cove Asset Management, which Ader organized; Citigroup; RBC Capital Markets; and Highfields Capital Management.

Contact reporter John G. Edwards at jedwards@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0420.