Orange National Bancorp Queried on Surge

Orange National Bancorp’s shares jumped 27% Friday, prompting a telephone inquiry by Nasdaq market officials. The banking company’s chief financial officer said he had no explanation for the stock’s surge--a $5.75-a-share increase to $26.75. But an industry observer said investors may be responding to news that the company’s bank, Orange National Bank, may soon become Orange County’s largest independent bank. About 19,500 shares changed hands, 10 times more than the average volume over the past three months. “It would seem to me that the stock in Orange National is postured to appreciate dramatically with the announcement” this week that Western Bancorp has agreed to buy PNB Financial Group Inc., which owns Pacific National Bank in Newport Beach, said Ed Carpenter, chief executive of the investment banking firm Carpenter & Co. in Irvine. “It’s likely that savvy bank investors are investing in the bank as the scarcity of banks of any size that haven’t sold in Orange County increases.” Robert W. Creighton, Orange National Bancorp’s chief financial officer, said the company had no news to offer. “We’ve had interest in our bank for the last two or three years from other banks,” he said, “but there’s nothing to report at this point.”