Oct. 20--Citizens Business Bank just got bigger.

As five San Joaquin Bank branches in the Bakersfield region opened as Citizens branches Monday, investors of Citizens' parent company were waiting for information to be filed on how much in potential loan losses the bank will share with the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. under the buyout.

Out of $683 million in questionable loans and assets, Citizens will absorb 20 percent of any losses on the first $144 million, and then 5 percent of any losses on the next $539 million, according to Chris Myers, president and CEO of Citizens' parent company, CVB Financial Corp.

Bakersfield-based San Joaquin Bank, owned by San Joaquin Bancorp, failed Friday after attempts to recapitalize amid regulatory pressure. Too many of the bank's construction and development loans went sour.

"We're really not at risk on the loan side," Myers said, noting the performing loans Citizens is adding to its portfolio. "They did have a lot of real estate construction and land loans ... but their underlying is a good, core bank. That's what we want out of this."

He said that even if CVB hadn't raised $132 million in July's stock offering, the company still would've had the financial backing to take over San Joaquin's deposits and loans.

Although that money was used to repay $130 million the company received from the government in December, CVB still has a cushion of about $130 million.

"We could do another

acquisition very easily," Myers said. "But right now, we're going to absorb this one for the next six months and go from there."

One banking analyst said CVB will probably continue being "opportunistic."

"Most (banks) don't want to take on too much at once because it's a lot of time and effort to integrate a new bank," said Joseph Gladue with Los Angeles-based B. Riley and Company Inc. "But if something very attractive comes up, I'd suspect they'd look at it."

He suspects losses at Citizens stemming from San Joaquin's portfolio "will be relatively small."

"Most banks aren't going to be doing any deals unless the FDIC takes on most of the losses," Gladue said.

CVB's stock price jumped 8 percent, closing at $8.26.

Citizens took over about $630 million in new deposits and purchased $775 million in San Joaquin's total assets, according to a statement issued by the FDIC.

San Joaquin Bank had more than $100 million nonperforming and restructured loans -- about 14 percent of total loans -- as of June 30, according to its regulatory filings.

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