BIRMINGHAM, Ala. -- Compass Bancshares signed a definitive agreement to acquire American Bancorporation of the South, Merrill Island, Fla.
Compass, based here, will pay $15.4 million in cash, or 1.2 times book value, to acquire the holding company for American Bank of the South, which has $190 million of assets and 16 offices in Brevard County on Florida's eastern coast.
Compass, which has $7.8 billion of assets, entered Florida in 1991 with the purchase of a Pensacola bank.
It subsequently expanded across the Panhandle to Jacksonville.
Upon the completion of the American Bancorp. acquisition and two other pending deals, it will have $9 billion of assets and 204 offices in three states.
