BB&T Corp., seeking Federal Reserve approval of its deal to buy United Carolina Bancshares, said it would sell 23 branches and more than $500 million of deposits after the deal.
BB&T, based in Winston-Salem, N.C., said this week that it would divest the branch operations to comply with federal guidelines regulating deposit market share. Seventeen of the 23 branches are now owned by $4.9 billion- asset United Carolina.
The $985 million acquisition, expected to close July 1, would put BB&T over the market-share guidelines in 11 markets, the company said.
Scott E. Reed, chief financial officer of $22.1 billion-asset BB&T, said the proposal would clear the way with the Fed. "We're expecting Fed approval shortly," he said. "It's just a matter of timing."
The company, which changed its name from Southern National Corp. a week ago, said it would sell 13 branches and $311 million of deposits to the lead bank of Rocky Mount, N.C.-based Centura Banks Inc. Terms were not disclosed.
The deal would expand Centura's market share in eastern North Carolina and push its assets to more than $6.7 billion.
Triangle Bancorp., a $1 billion-asset company based in Raleigh, N.C., has agreed to buy 10 branches and $215 million of deposits from BB&T in the eastern and south-central parts of the state. Terms of this deal were also undisclosed.
It is expected that both transactions would be completed in the third quarter.
BB&T's chairman, John Allison, said he doubted any employees of these branches would lose their jobs.
"Centura and Triangle will need these branch employees to ensure consistency and efficient communication, especially through the divestiture process," he said. "We feel confident that the employees of the divested branches will have excellent opportunities at these two highly regarded institutions."
Buying United Carolina would make BB&T No. 1 in deposit market share in the Carolinas.
In addition to the branches it proposes to sell, BB&T had said it would close 70 branches in North Carolina and South Carolina because of overlap with United Carolina's. BB&T now has 423 branches in 221 communities in the Carolinas and Virginia.
United Carolina has 155 branches in 89 cities and towns in the Carolinas.
BB&T also plans to close United Carolina's operations center in Monroe, N.C., which employs 250 people. The center is less than an hour outside Charlotte, N.C., where BB&T operates a similar facility that employs more than 400. BB&T said it would close the Monroe facility in early 1998.
Overall, BB&T plans to cut about 1,000 jobs to gain efficiencies from the acquisition.
The cuts are projected to save $65 million a year starting in 1998.
