Fresh from American River buy, Bank of Marin still interested in M&A

Bank of Marin Bancorp, which completed its acquisition of American River Bankshares in August, is still interested in M&A, CEO Russell Colombo said Oct. 25 during a conference call to discuss third-quarter results.

The executive made the statement in response to a question from an analyst on whether Bank of Marin would like to be out of the M&A game for at least a short while amid the increase in the size of the company's share repurchase program to $57.0 million from $25.0 million.

"[T]hat does not indicate that we were on the sidelines on the M&A side. That's kind of a separate deal. And frankly speaking, every deal that's getting done these days, I shouldn't say every, but [the] majority is mostly stock, not cash. So we just feel like we have an excess amount of capital," Colombo said, according to a transcript. "And we think the best way at this point is to buy back our shares because we still believe that our shares are undervalued ... And if an opportunity presented itself, certainly, we would reevaluate the repurchase program. But right now, we're interested in continuing to look at M&A opportunities as well as buy back stock."

Colombo said the third quarter marked the early stages of the integration process related to the American River acquisition, with merger-related costs reducing net income for the period by $3.9 million.

Bank of Marin reported third-quarter earnings of $5.3 million, or 35 cents per share, compared with $7.5 million, or 55 cents per share, in the same period in 2020.