KeyBank to Buy EverTrustBank

KeyBank, a Cleveland-based subsidiary of KeyCorp, has agreed to acquire EverTrustBank, an Everett, Wash.-based subsidiary of EverTrust Financial Group, for $194.7 million.The acquisition, in the form of a $25.60-per-share cash distribution to EverTrust common shareholders, will add 12 bank offices in Snohomish and King counties to Key's office base in the Seattle-Cascades District. KeyBank said EverTrust's commercial real estate business -- which operates from two main offices in Tacoma and Portland, Ore., as well as branch offices in Seattle, Bellevue, and Everett -- is a "particularly strategic fit" with Key's commercial real estate lending operations. Jack Kopnisky, Key's head of consumer banking, said the acquisition will "significantly enhance our presence in the Puget Sound region's important Everett market and along the I-5 corridor," which Key sees as "high-growth, attractive communities contiguous to our current operations."