Regions Financial of Alabama Continuing Its March on Atlanta with

Regions Financial Corp. of Birmingham, Ala. has another deal - the second announced in as many weeks - to buy an Atlanta community bank.

Regions said it signed a definitive agreement to buy Metro Financial Corp. for stock valued at $27.1 million, or 2.1 times Metro's book value.

Atlanta-based Metro Financial has $199 million of assets and owns a single state-chartered bank, Metro Bank. It operates in the city's northern suburbs, with two branches and one construction lending/mortgage origination office.

Under the terms of the agreement, Regions will exchange 0.431 share of its common stock for each of the 1.65 million Metro shares outstanding.

The Metro deal was announced last week. Less than a week earlier, Regions had announced an agreement in principle to acquire Enterprise National Bank, which has $51 million in assets, for $9.3 million in cash, or 1.5 times book value.

If both the Metro and Enterprise acquisitions are consummated, as expected, by next year's first quarter, Regions will have $950 million of assets in Georgia - in Atlanta, Columbus, Rome, Dalton, and Cartersville.

Regions, which has $13.5 billion of assets overall, also operates banks in Alabama, Florida, Tennessee, and Louisiana.

"The addition of Metro Bank to our company will allow us to compete effectively in the north Atlanta suburbs," said Regions chairman and CEO J. Stanley Mackin. Mr. Mackin added that Regions looks forward to "enlarging our presence in the north Atlanta area."

Regions executives had previously denied they had any intention of expanding into downtown Atlanta in search of major corporate business. Regions specializes in retail and small-business banking.

Regions has $13.5 billion of assets overall, with banks also in Alabama, Florida, Tennessee, and Louisiana, and 282 banking offices.

The recent moves by Regions mean there are now two Alabama banks actively trolling the Atlanta market for acquisitions. Montgomery-based Colonial BancGroup bought a $198 million-asset thrift in suburban Dunwoody, in March, and is known to be looking at other potential targets.

Meanwhile, acquisition-related rumors are swirling around Georgia's third-largest independent bank, First National Bancorp in Gainesville, 50 miles northeast of Atlanta. Large shareholders are said to be pressuring management to sell the $2.5 billion-asset company.

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