Behind Union Bank's PB Capital Deal

SAN FRANCISCO-A few days ago, GlobeSt.com reported that locally based Union Bank N.A. has reached an agreement to acquire PB Capital Corp.’s institutional commercial real estate lending portfolio and platform—a platform that has approximately $3.7-billion in loans outstanding on properties in major metropolitan areas across the US. We caught up with Michael Stedman, Union Bank senior EVP of real estate industries, to talk about details behind the deal, what makes it a good fit and what’s next on the bank’s agenda.

While no pricing details were discussed, when asked about timing behind the deal, Stedman tells GlobeSt.com that Union Bank has intended significantly grow its business in the institutional CRE markets since the first quarter of 2010, and has “grown it successfully on an organic basis”—close to 20% per year over the last few years, he says.