Jay Sachetti joined Jeff O’Brien, partner at Husch Blackwell and Dyanne Ross-Hanson, president of Exit Planning Strategies talked about the market for mergers and acquisitions, exit planning opportunities for companies that don’t end up for sale and how companies can maximize their eventual sale price during an early October panel at the first Upsize on Tap event at Summit Brewing Co. in St. Paul.
When the state Legislature passed a law requiring employers to provide paid leave and safe time for employees, Justin Bieganek started hearing differing details from friends, colleagues and peers.
Venture Bank’s third and latest branch, in Eagan, seeks to gain business in the St. Paul market, says Christine Young, assistant vice president and commercial loan officer in the Golden Valley branch, the bank’s second branch to open, two years ago.
The Eagan branch opened late last year and hosted a grand opening party in late February. The first Venture Bank opened in Bloomington in 2001, by former officers of Riverside Bank after that bank’s sale, led by CEO Michael Zenk.
Young says bankers there hope the new branch will help them reach their 2007 goal: $201 million in assets and $178 million in deposits. That would be up from 2006 numbers: $166.2 million in assets and $149.3 million in deposits.
She says the competition for business loan customers is fierce as interest rates rise into the 8 percent range. At that relatively high level (compared with 4 percent a few years ago) borrowers are looking for every fraction of a lower rate.
Also, she points out, now that the bank is more than five years old, it gets more difficult to keep growth rates as high as in the beginning.
A new bank, Bridgewater Bank in Bloomington, for example, said assets reached $165 million, loans $158 million and deposits $151 million in 2006, its first full year in business.
Young says Venture Bank tried to keep costs of the Eagan opening down by training bankers at its Golden Valley location for about a year. She and other officers have been marketing their services heavily in the east metro, through advertising and networking.
Christine Young, Venture Bank: 763.398.5815; cy****@***************ne.com; www.venturebankonline.com
