Feb. 2. Cornelius-based Aquesta Bank will open a full service bank branch in Wilmington, proof, perhaps, that the Aquesta name and logo translates well to an upscale, waterfont-oriented marketplace.
Aquesta Financial Holdings officials said they “recently finalized the purchase of a soon-to-be full-service bank branch” in Wilmington. While no other details were immediately available, the financial services company already has an Aquesta Insurance office on Military Cutoff Road in an upscale area of Wilmington not far from Wrightsville Beach.
Aquesta’s chief subsidiary, Aquesta Bank, has branches in Cornelius, Davidson, Huntersville, Mooresville and Charlotte.
The Wilmington branch is expected to open in the spring. Aquesta Insurance Services—an independent agency—has offices in Cornelius, Huntersville, Mooresville, Wilmington and in Hampstead, just north of Wilmington and Wrightsville Beach.
On Jan. 21, Aquesta Financial Holdings and Aquesta Insurance Services announced today the purchase of the Alex Squires’ Insurance Portfolio from the James E. Moore Agency in Wilmington.
Aquesta unaudited net income for the three months ended Dec. 31 was $387,000 compared to $368,000 during the fourth quarter of 2014. For the full year 2015, net income was $2.0 million vs. $1.7 million in 2014.
CEO and President of Aquesta, Jim Engel, said he is “happy with the strong ending quarter for 2015 and hope this helps establish the pace” for this year.
“Loan production is excellent as well as core deposit growth. Our SouthPark branch is up and running with continued growth expected. We recently contracted on a Wilmington branch location that will also house our Wilmington insurance operations. In sum, we had an excellent year and look forward to growth of loans and earnings in 2016.”
Just less than a year ago, Aquesta purchased the SouthPark branch of CertusBank, its first branch outside the Lake Norman area.
Greenville, S.C.-based Certus, once headquartered in Charlotte, faced mounting losses and increased regulatory scrutiny.
