First Hawaiian
becomes BancWest
Isle bank CEO Dods gets
'all choked up' on the trading floor
as he views first tradeBy Russ Lynch
Star-BulletinWalter A. Dods Jr. said he got "all choked up" this morning standing on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange while the new company he heads, BancWest Corp., traded for the first time.
Dods said he watched activity on the exchange floor build faster and faster as the time for the opening bell approached and then trading started. "And suddenly our stock, BWE, came first on the ticker."
He made the first buy at $40, and the new BancWest Corp., the new corporate parent of First Hawaiian Bank, was on its way.
"For a local kid from Hawaii, you see it (NYSE) every night on CNN," said Dods, BancWest's chairman and and chief executive. But actually being on the NYSE floor -- as chairman and chief executive officer of a new banking giant he helped create through a $1 billion-plus merger -- was a totally different experience, he said in a telephone interview from New York this morning.
After a slow start early in the day, investors managed a little excitement of their own for the new stock. By closing, more than 46,000 shares of BancWest had traded and the stock closed at $41.671/2, $1.75 higher than First Hawaiian Inc.'s closing price Friday.
Today's action in New York marked what Dods called a defining moment in the 140-year history of what had been Bishop Bank, then First National Bank, First Hawaiian Bank and lastly the First Hawaiian Inc. holding company.
It became possible with yesterday's conclusion of First Hawaiian Inc.'s acquisition, for 25.9 million new shares, of what had been called BancWest, San Francisco-based parent of Bank of the West. The two firms were merged into a new BancWest Corp., based in Honolulu.Shareholders of the former First Hawaiian Inc. hold 55 percent of the new company and the owner of the former BancWest, Banque Nationale de Paris, holds 45 percent. Since the stock issued to the French company is a new class and isn't traded, it did not dilute the stock in the market and the new BWE shares have the same value as the First Hawaiian shares.
The Paris bank agreed to a four-year "standstill" during which it will not increase its holding in BancWest. At the end of the four years, however, it could go for more, but it would have to start with a direct offer for a 100 percent takeover.
The first effects of the launching the new company today were the disappearance of First Hawaiian from the Nasdaq exchange and the launch of BWE on the Big Board.
Also today, First Hawaiian Bank customers gained check-cashing rights on the mainland, at the 104 branches of Bank of the West in California and 40 branches of Pacific One Bank in Oregon, Washington and Idaho.
Customers of those mainland branches now can cash checks at the 63 First Hawaiian Bank branches in Hawaii, Guam and Saipan.
What is important to Dods and other executives of the old First Hawaiian Inc. is that they are now part of a geographically diverse financial corporation with $14.7 billion in assets as of the close of the merger. That possibly makes them bigger than Pacific Century Financial Corp., owner of Bank of Hawaii, whose last reported assets totaled $14.6 billion. That was at Sept. 30, however, and a direct comparison won't be possible until year-end figures are issued.
The First Hawaiian and Bank of the West branches will keep their names. However the 40 Pacific One branches that had been part of First Hawaiian Inc. will become Bank of the West branches in February.
Don J. McGrath, who headed the old BancWest, became president and chief operating officer of the new BancWest, working out of his San Francisco office.
By the numbers
Merger: The new BancWest Corp. created by First Hawaiian Inc.'s acquisition of the former BancWest
