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Contact: Investor Relations:
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Company:
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The Foristall Company, Inc. Michael J. Fitzpatrick
Thomas F. Curtin Chief Financial Officer
Tel: 610-398-3022 OceanFirst Financial Corp.
Fax: 610-530-7781 Tel: (732)240-4500, ext. 7506
Email:foristal@aol.com Fax: (732)349-5070
Email-Mfitzpatrick@oceanfirst.com
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
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OCEANFIRST FINANCIAL CORP.
ANNOUNCES ACQUISITION OF
COLUMBIA EQUITIES, LTD.
TOMS RIVER, NEW JERSEY, JUNE 28, 2000...OCEANFIRST FINANCIAL CORP.
(THE "COMPANY") (NASDAQ:OCFC), today announced that its wholly-owned subsidiary,
OceanFirst Bank (the "Bank"), has entered into a definitive agreement to
purchase Columbia Equities, Ltd. ("Columbia") of Tarrytown, New York. Columbia
originates, sells and services a full product line of residential mortgage loans
in New York, New Jersey and Connecticut. Loans are originated through three
retail branches, a web site and a network of independent mortgage brokers. For
the year ended May 31, 2000, Columbia originated $275 million in loans and also
retains servicing rights on loans with unpaid principal balances of $745
million.
Richard S. Pardes, founder and Chairman of Columbia will continue as
a consultant to Columbia. Robert M. Pardes, current President of Columbia, will
continue in that role subsequent to closing and will also assume
responsibilities for the Bank's Residential Loan
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Division as Executive Vice President. Mr. Pardes will succeed Michael E. Barrett
in this capacity who had previously notified the Bank of his planned retirement.
John R. Garbarino, Chairman, President and Chief Executive Officer
of the Company, commented, "The acquisition of Columbia and Robert Pardes
continues our commitment to provide home mortgage financing even while the Bank
expands its commercial and consumer lines of business. The Board of Directors
and I are grateful to the many contributions made by Mike Barrett over his 13
year tenure with the Bank. We are fortunate to have someone with the experience
and depth of knowledge as Robert Pardes to fill this important position."
The transaction has been structured to avoid the recognition of
goodwill for accounting purposes. The acquisition is expected to be modestly
accretive to the Company's earnings per share in 2000 and thereafter.
Columbia will operate as a separate mortgage banking subsidiary of
OceanFirst Bank and remains committed to serving the needs of the Westchester
County and metropolitan New York communities it has served over the last twenty
years. The acquisition, which is subject to regulatory notice, is expected to
close during the third quarter 2000.
Mr. Garbarino further commented "The acquisition of Columbia is
expected to benefit OceanFirst in many ways including: (i) outstanding and
experienced management talent in Robert Pardes; (ii) access to a significant
amount of mortgage loan production volume; (iii) immediate earnings accretion;
(iv) loan portfolio diversity; and (v) residential mortgage product line
expansion. We believe that the combination of a successful community bank
culture with a
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seasoned and well established mortgage banking platform will allow both
institutions to better serve their respective communities and build value for
our shareholders."
OceanFirst Financial Corp.'s subsidiary, OceanFirst Bank, founded in
1902, is a federally-chartered stock savings bank with $1.6 billion in assets
and eleven of its fourteen branches located in Ocean County. It is the largest
and oldest community-based financial institution headquartered in Ocean County,
New Jersey.
The news release contains certain forward-looking statements about
the proposed merger of OceanFirst and Columbia. These statements include
statements regarding the anticipated closing date of the transaction and
anticipated future results. Forward-looking statements can be identified by the
fact that they do not relate strictly to historical or current facts. They often
include words like "believe," "expect," "anticipate," "estimate" and "intend" or
future or conditional verbs such as "will," "would," "should," "could" or "may."
Certain factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from
expected results include delays in completing the merger, difficulties in
achieving cost savings from the merger or in achieving such cost savings within
the expected time frame, difficulties in integrating OceanFirst and Columbia,
increased competitive pressures, changes in the interest rate environment,
changes in general economic conditions, legislative and regulatory changes that
adversely affect the businesses in which OceanFirst and Columbia are engaged and
changes in the securities markets.