Oregon Banking Firms Merge To Form West Coast Bancorp

NEWPORT, Ore. - West Coast Bancorp of Newport and Commercial Bancorp of Salem, Ore., two publicly held banking companies, today said they would merge under the name West Coast Bancorp.

The comparably sized banks will form a company with about $420 million in assets. West Coast shareholders will receive six-tenths of one share of the new company for each share they hold. Commercial shareholders will hold their shares at the same basis. The two companies own Bank of Newport, The Commercial Bank and Valley Commercial Bank.

Victor Bartruff, West Coast president, and Rodney Tibbatts, president of Commercial, will serve as co-chief executives.