First Republic Bank, a California-chartered commercial bank and trust company headquartered in San Francisco, filed a preliminary offering circular on Wednesday. The bank, which was founded in 1985, was bought by Bank of America through its acquisition of Merrill Lynch in January 2009 and then sold to private equity firms General Atlantic and Colony Capital later that year. It operates 61 branches and booked $1.3 billion in interest and non-interest income last year. First Republic Bank plans to list on the NYSE under the symbol FRC. BofA Merrill Lynch, Morgan Stanley and J.P. Morgan are the lead underwriters on the deal, for which estimated deal size, pricing terms and timing were not disclosed.
