Hilltop Holdings Inc (HTH)

[Enterprising Investor]

Exclusive: Texas bank to double Houston workforce within a year (4/01/15)

Dallas-based PlainsCapital Bank plans to double its banker workforce in Houston over the next 12 to 18 months.

Currently, the bank has about 10 lenders, said David Williams, the bank's Houston market president.

PlainsCapital Bank recently told the Houston Business Journal about its new Houston headquarters in the Kirby Grove mixed-use development.

"Houston has been a gigantic opportunity for us," said Williams.

The recruitment plans are significant because it's central to PlainsCapital's growth plans for Houston. At the point that three to four lenders are in place with an asset base of $75 million to $150 million, the bank will then consider building a branch around that team.

Thus a recruitment target of an additional nine or 10 lenders could mean at least a few additional bank branches for the bank over the next few years.

PlainsCapital Bank, the banking subsidiary of Hilltop Holdings Inc. (NYSE: HTH), first entered Houston when it bought the deposits of the failed Edinburg, Texas-based First National Bank in 2013, but has only now recently solidified its central stronghold in Houston with the new office lease and the marketing of its newly acquired lenders.

http://www.bizjournals.com/houston/morning_call/2015/04/exclusivetexas-bank-to-double-houston-workforce.html