Bank of the West 2008 Annual Report Download - page 14

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12
COMMERCIAL BANKING
Cash management and commercial credit cards, capital
markets (foreign exchange, fixed income, derivatives),
trade finance, and depository products complement
the bank’s offering. Syndication is available for larger
credit needs.
Bank of the West in 2008 financed projects ranging
from a California publisher’s acquisition of another
publisher in Washington D.C., to the syndicated buyout
of a Minneapolis manufacturer of industrial heat treat-
ment systems exporting to China; from refinancing a
specialized software producer in Kansas City, building
churches in Roseville and Las Vegas and a major
addition to the skyline in Sacramento, to a vineyard
REIT in the California wine country.
Napa Valley’s VinREIT has an uncommon business
model: buying vineyards and wineries and leasing them
back to operators. Rapid growth brought VinREIT to
Bank of the West’s Agribusiness Banking team, which
had financed a similar wine country REIT in the recent
past and knew the specific characteristics of this
financing type. Even in a turbulent credit climate, with
partner banks sensitive to pricing and structure, Bank
of the West was able to coordinate 10 lenders to meet
VinREIT’s need for $165 million. Complex, innovative
SAGE CFO Richard Wolff, right, with the bank’s Senior Vice President Jason Horstman, National Banking.
SAGE Publications of Thousand Oaks, California was actively in search of
a new bank when the opportunity arose to purchase another publisher.
“We had an unplanned need with a tight deadline,” said SAGE Chief
Financial Officer Richard Wolff. “The bank fielded a large team that
moved quickly and is now SAGE’s primary bank.”
Solving
Relationship banking for larger clients demands quick
action by our teams – analyzing situations and data to
create bids, supplying new products to solve problems
and customizing terms and structures to conclude credit
arrangements on tight timelines. Our teams, consisting
of a primary relationship manager, cash management
representative, and a fixed income manager, provide
timely solutions to the needs of larger companies. The
team approach emphasizes Bank of the West’s ability to
build and sustain multifaceted banking relationships
with clients.
Dependable, Honest and Competitive
Corporate executives queried in recent research widely
associated the bank’s commercial group with the words
dependable, honest and competitive.
With assets of $16 billion at the end of 2008, the
Commercial Banking Group has primary lines of busi-
ness in commercial and industrial banking for companies
with revenues of $50 million and more; agribusiness
banking and real estate industries including residential
and commercial developers, plus specialties in equipment
finance, banking for faith-based institutions, as well as
governments and education.