Mo. company to acquire Los Alamos National Bank

Combined operation will have nearly $7B in assets

A Missouri bank holding company is acquiring the parent company of Los Alamos National Bank in a merger agreement valued at $213 million.

Enterprise Financial Services Corp. of Clayton Mo., which owns banks in the St. Louis, Kansas City and Phoenix metro areas, is acquiring Trinity Capital Corporation, LANB’s parent company. The combined company would have nearly $7 billion in assets, according to a news release from Enterprise.

LANB has offices in Los Alamos, Santa Fe and Albuquerque, and its parent company has current assets of $1.3 billion. Enterprise has $5.5 billion in assets.

“We are pleased to join with Enterprise particularly due to an admiration for their diverse business model as well as their commitment to serving their clients,” John Gulas, Trinity president and chief executive officer, said in a prepared statement.

In a phone interview, Gulas said customers probably won’t see any difference in the way LANB does business.

“They do a great job of customer service and have the same kind of focus on customer service that we have with ours,” he said, adding that their respective mission statements are similar. “Our customers will deal with the same people they’ve always dealt with.”

The same goes for the bank’s commitment to community involvement.

“None of that will change. They believe, like we do, that a community bank must support the community,” he said.

Trinity shareholders will receive .1972 shares of Enterprise common stock and $1.84 in cash for each share of Trinity common stock they hold, according to the release. The transaction has been unanimously approved by the boards Enterprise, Trinity and LANB and is expected to close early next year.

LANB was formed in 1963 by a group of local investors. It has six locations: three in Santa Fe and one each in Albuquerque, White Rock and Los Alamos.