Howard Rice Represents Presidio Bank in Capital Purchase Program (CPP) Financing Transaction

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San Francisco, CA — November 25, 2009 — Howard Rice recently represented client Presidio Bank in a $10.8 million Capital Purchase Program (CPP) financing transaction with the United States Treasury. The Howard Rice team also advised Presidio Bank on a variety of related complex executive compensation and regulatory issues.

The Howard Rice team included Directors Thomas A. Larsen, Julia Vax and Ellen Kaye Fleishhacker; Of Counsel Barry A. Abbott; and former Special Counsel Alison E. Wright.

The following press release was distributed by Presidio Bank:

PRESIDIO BANK ANNOUNCES EXPANSION TO PALO ALTO AND INCREASED CAPITAL TO FUND GROWTH

SAN FRANCISCO, NOVEMBER 24, 2009: Presidio Bank (symbol: PDOB) today announced that it will be opening a new office in downtown Palo Alto to serve businesses in the important Mid-Peninsula market. The bank has signed a lease for office space at 325 Lytton Avenue in Palo Alto and plans to open in the first quarter of 2010.

Presidio Bank President and CEO, Steve Heitel is leading the Bank’s expansion efforts on the Peninsula. Heitel, formerly president and CEO of Mid-Peninsula Bank in Palo Alto, has already hired Mid-Peninsula Bank veterans, Sarah Lewis and Luke Farley as relationship mangers for the new office. In addition, David Kalkbrenner, former CEO of Greater Bay Bancorp, is working with Presidio Bank on this expansion and will serve as Chairman of the Bank’s Mid-Peninsula Advisory Board.

“We are thrilled to be bringing Presidio Bank’s highly successful relationship banking model to Palo Alto” stated Heitel. “We have assembled a first class team of bankers with significant experience in the Mid-Peninsula market. I am particularly pleased to be working again with David Kalkbrenner whose thirty plus years of market knowledge will be a great asset for Presidio Bank.”

In order to fund the expansion to Palo Alto and continued growth in its four existing offices, Presidio also announced that it has just received $10.8 million in additional capital from the issuance of non-voting Preferred Stock to the United States Treasury as part of its Capital Purchase Program (CPP). The CPP is a voluntary program in which the U.S. Government, through the Treasury, invests in preferred equity securities issued by healthy, viable institutions that are recommended by federal banking regulators to encourage lending in those communities.

James Woolwine, Chairman of Presidio Bank, noted that the Bank’s decision to participate in the CPP program represents a positive step forward in Presidio’s growth plans and its ability to support the capital needs of its clients.

“At Presidio, our focus has always been to provide loans that create economic value and jobs in the Bay Area,” he said. “Our projections indicate that we can leverage these new funds and forge a potential impact of more than $100 million in new loans to qualified businesses and clients.

“With additional capital, banks are better able to meet the lending needs of their communities and provide businesses with greater access to the credit that they require for operations and growth,” Woolwine added. “Our approval for CPP funding provides further affirmation of our financial strength, and will allow us to bring our products and services to more clients and communities, including to new clients on the Peninsula.” 

Woolwine noted that the bank performed an exhaustive analysis of all the costs associated with the CPP program and concluded that the immediate and longer term benefits that would accrue to shareholders, clients and Bay Area communities were highly positive. “This capital provides additional assurance that we can continue to work toward supporting our present and prospective borrowers in their own business activities and can provide our depositors with an additional capital cushion without diluting our shareholders,” Woolwine said.  “These funds will result in Presidio Bank having one of the highest capital ratios within our banking peer group. Combined with our strong credit quality metrics, this will position the Bank for success in the current economic climate and into the future.”

Presidio Bank, a member of FDIC and an Equal Housing Lender, is headquartered in San Francisco, California and currently operates four banking offices in San Francisco, Walnut Creek, San Rafael and Santa Rosa.

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