By Jonathan Stempel
NEW YORK (Reuters) - Banco Popular plans to add more than 100 U.S. branches by the end of 2008 through acquisitions and opening new locations on its own, its top U.S. executive said on Thursday.
Speaking at the Reuters Banking Summit, Roberto Herencia, president of Banco Popular North America (Banco Popular), said the unit of Puerto Rico's Popular Inc. (BPOP.O: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) plans significant expansion in its six main U.S. markets -- New York, southern California, Chicago, Houston, Miami and Orlando -- even as larger rivals aggressively add branches to win their own customers.
Banco Popular now has about 137 U.S. branches, and expects to end 2008 with about 240, Herencia said. It ended 2005 with about $12 billion of assets, roughly one-fourth its parent's total, and expects to roughly double it within three years. Popular is Puerto Rico's largest bank.
"The focus is on organic growth, sustaining the double-digit growth that we enjoyed in the last four years on the loan and deposit side," Herencia said. "The rest will come through acquisitions."
He said the bank plans to focus on smaller acquisitions, such as its 2004 purchase of Whittier, California's Quaker City Bancorp Inc.
Banco Popular operates 52 branches in New York and New Jersey, 46 in southern California and 20 around Chicago.
Herencia said Banco Popular expects by the end of 2008 to open roughly 29 new branches in southern California and 20 to 30 around Chicago, and roughly double its Florida presence
Most of the expansion in the eastern United States will be through opening its own branches, known as "de novo" expansion, while western U.S. growth will be largely by acquisitions. Continued...
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