St. Louis-based Magna Group Inc. said Thursday it would pay cash to acquire nearly $200 million in assets from Community Bank of Greater Peoria, 5 becoming the second Missouri bank to move into Illinois' second largest city this year.
The company refused to say how much it would pay to acquire the seven bank locations, all in the Peoria area, and the two loan origination offices in nearby Bloomington and Champaign.
Playing in Peoria
The deal will add to Magna's 13 existing central Illinois offices which account for $600 million of the company's $3.9 billion in assets.
The deal will not include certain loans, which will be purchased by First Boston Mortgage Service Corp. and J-Hawk Corp.
Bank executives were not available for comment yesterday. magna Chairman William Badgley recently said the bank was focusing on in market acqusitions while expanding lines of business, in an effort to shake its record as an underperformer among Midwestern banks.
The deal is the second this year by a Missouri-based bank moving into blue-collar Peoria.
Commerce Banscshares, a $7.5 billion-asset company based in Kansas City, acquired First Peoria Corp. for $65 million in cash and stock.
The city is best known as home to John Deere & Co., but also sits at thB crossroads of the national highway interestate system and in the center of Illinois' agricultural economy.
"The Peoria market is a very good one for banks," said Joseph Steven, senior bank analyst at Stifel, Nicolaus & Co. in St. Louis.
A spokesman, Paul Gerson, said the acquisition could be completed by year-end and could make a positive contribution to earnings by the first quater of 1994.
He said the acquisition will actually be made through the company's illinois chartered bank, which is headquartered in Belleville.
The Peoria operations will be overseen By Daniel P. Daly, who is currently senior vice president and chief financial officer of Community Bank.
