Valley National Closes $101M Sale-Leaseback Deal

WAYNE, NJ—Valley National Bancorp reports it has closed on a majority of its previously announced sale-leaseback of 29 bank-owned properties for more than $100 million.

The Wayne, NJ-based regional bank has closed on the sale-leaseback of 26 of a planned 29 properties. The deal announced today involves 25 branches and one corporate location to an unnamed buyer for $100.5 million.

That deal is expected to bring Valley National a pre-tax net gain of approximately $78 million.

Valley National announced on Feb. 13 it planned to engage in a sale/leaseback on a total of 29 properties that includes 28 branches and one corporate location for a total aggregate purchase price of approximately $107 million.

The bank reports today that it expects to close on the remaining three bank branch properties during the second quarter of 2019. That transaction should result in an additional pre-tax net gain greater than $3 million for Valley National.

In conjunction with its original announcement of the sale-leaseback property initiative last month, the bank also announced a plan to eliminate approximately 60 corporate positions as a part of its continuous efforts to improve operating efficiencies.  The annualized salary and benefit expense associated with those eliminations is expected to be in excess of $5 million, the bank states.

Valley National Bank has approximately $32 billion in assets and operates more than 200 branches across New Jersey, New York, Florida and Alabama.