MB Financial Set for Margin Improvement

CHICAGO (TheStreet) -- MB Financial (MBFI) is well-positioned for continued margin improvement after it acquired Corus Bank's deposits on Friday for a very low price.

MB Financial's stock was up 4.7% $17.83 in recent trading Monday, as the Chicago lender announced it had had commenced a $175 million common stock offering priced at $16.

In its press release announcing the capital raise, the company said the money would be used for general corporate purposes and help position MB for additional "attractive acquisition opportunities in the current environment." CEO Mitchell Feiger, on a conference call, stressed that the capital raise was not a requirement of the Corus acquisition.

MB Financial's capital position had already been boosted in December, when the company sold preferred shares to the Treasury, raising $196 million in capital through the Troubled Assets Relief Program, or TARP.

Corus was the third failed Illinois bank acquired by MB this year, following InBank of Oak Forest on Sept. 4 and Heritage Community Bank of Glenwood in February. But Corus was by far the company's largest acquisition. MB acquired over $6.6 billion in deposits and about $3 billion of Corus's assets for roughly $13 million, with the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. retaining Corus's distressed commercial real estate loans and repossessed real estate.

MB Financial plans immediately to redeem $3.2 billion in CDs outside its home market in Chicago and surrounding suburbs, and allow higher-rate local CDs and money market accounts to run off, since the company is allowed to re-price acquired deposits.