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Metropolitan Bank, a private Chinese-American bank, may be more open to a sale since the death of its founder, two industry sources told mergermarket.

Frank Fu-Jen Kiang, who started the Oakland, California-based bank in 1983 and served as its chairman and chief executive, died of cancer in December, aged 64.

Henry Kiang, his oldest son and the bank’s general counsel, said Metropolitan Bank received unsolicited offers all the time, but his father had resisted largely because of his sentimental attachment to the bank, which was the first to serve the Asian community in Oakland’s Chinatown.

Henry Kiang said it was “tough to say” if the bank would now be more open to offers than before. Since Metropolitan continues to satisfy shareholders with its good performance despite the credit crunch, the bank feels no “pressing need to sell” but it is “always interested in at least entertaining offers,” he said. ”But it would probably have to be compelling [for us to sell].”

Metropolitan might appeal more ”to someone from out of the area looking to gain a foothold” in the San Francisco Bay Area’s Asian market, he said. Offers from investment groups or private equity shops that want a bank charter would be “more appealing” than offers from other Asian-focused banks, such as UCBH Holdings, which already have a presence in the Bay Area and would only be buying deposits. “If we were to do something like sell the bank, it would be worth more to someone that does not have a bank than someone that already does,” Henry Kiang said.

However, the first industry source disagreed, saying: “[Metropolitan] could be very valuable to a larger bank who could garner substantial goodwill from acquiring a bank with such a good name in the community.”

Metropolitan, which has a total of USD 130m in assets and a return on equity exceeding 1.5%, has four branches – two in Oakland in Alameda county, one in San Francisco and one in San Jose.

The two industry sources said Metropolitan could be a good fit for UCBH, East West or Cathay General. Cathay, with more than USD 9.6bn in assets, has only one San Francisco office, and two in Alameda county, including one in Oakland, and could benefit from additions there, both sources said. The sources noted that Cathay has made an acquisition of Metropolitan’s size in 2006, when it bought Chicago-based New Asia Bank with USD 140m in assets.

Cathay General CFO Heng Chen said he had not heard of Metropolitan, although Cathay often hears of small banks only when they approach Cathay to sell. Chen said Metropolitan’s USD 130m in assets did not make it too small to buy, and he added that Cathay has only one Oakland branch that has not grown much.

A spokesperson for East West, which has only one Oakland branch, said it would look to buy banks if it had a strategic purpose, no matter how small.

A UCBH representative did not return calls for comment.

Metropolitan’s operations remain largely unaffected since Frank Fu-Jen Kiang was no longer involved in its day-to-day operations, said his son. Director Randy Lim was named interim chairman. Y.T. Lin, the bank’s current president and chief operations officer, will continue in that position. Henry Kiang’s mother was also recently named to the board of directors.

Metropolitan is a wholly-owned subsidiary of private holding company Met Financial Corporation, whose shareholders are Kiang family members and their friends, according to Henry Kiang.

Metropolitan’s attorney Gary Findley, who publishes the respected industry newsletter The Findley Reports on California’s financial institutions, fields M&A inquiries on behalf of Metropolitan, said Henry Kiang.

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