Fitch Affirms Sterling Financial Corp. on Northern Empire Bancshares Acquisition; Outlook Stable.NEW YORK New York, state, United States New York, Middle Atlantic state of the United States. It is bordered by Vermont, Massachusetts, Connecticut, and the Atlantic Ocean (E), New Jersey and Pennsylvania (S), Lakes Erie and Ontario and the Canadian province of -- Fitch affirms Sterling Financial Corporation (Nasdaq:STSA STSA Stilt Sandpiper (bird species) STSA Short-time Spectral Amplitude STSA Seaman Apprentice, Sonar Technician Striker (Naval Rating) ) as follows: --Issuer Default Rating (IDR IDR In currencies, this is the abbreviation for the Indonesian Rupiah. Notes: The currency market, also known as the Foreign Exchange market, is the largest financial market in the world, with a daily average volume of over US $1 trillion. ) 'BBB-'; --Short-term 'F3'; --Individual 'C'. The Rating outlook remains Stable. A full listing of ratings appears at the end of this release. STSA recently announced it has entered into a definitive agreement to purchase Northern Empire Bancshares (NREB), a $1.3 billion asset bank headquartered in Santa Rosa, CA, in a deal valued at $355 million. Northern has strong asset quality, good profitability metrics and accelerates STSA's entry into the Northern California market by adding 12 branches. Importantly, the deal is structured to modestly strengthen capital metrics. Upon completion STSA will have pro-forma assets of approximately $11.2 billion and deposits of $7.3 billion. With the Northern acquisition representing the third purchase announced by STSA during 2006, Fitch will monitor the management of integration and operational risk. Fitch affirms the following ratings with a Stable Rating Outlook: --Long-term Issuer Default Rating (IDR) 'BBB-'; --Short-term 'F3'; --Individual 'C'; --Support '5'. Sterling Savings Bank savings bank, financial institution that, until recently, performed only the following functions: receiving savings deposits of individuals, investing them, and providing a modest return to its depositors in the form of interest. --Long-term IDR 'BBB-'; --Long-term deposits 'BBB'; --Short-term 'F3'; --Short-term deposits 'F3'; --Individual 'C'; --Support '5'. Fitch's rating definitions and the terms of use Terms of Use are rules set up by the owner of an intellectual property or service to govern how they may be legally used. In many cases, terms of service are used as a contractual agreement between a company and users of a service they provide. of such ratings are available on the agency's public site, www.fitchratings.com. Published ratings, criteria and methodologies are available from this site, at all times. Fitch's code of conduct, confidentiality, conflicts of interest, affiliate firewall, compliance and other relevant policies and procedures Policies and Procedures are a set of documents that describe an organization's policies for operation and the procedures necessary to fulfill the policies. They are often initiated because of some external requirement, such as environmental compliance or other governmental are also available from the 'Code of Conduct' section of this site. |
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