NationsBank Closes Its Barnett Purchase

NationsBank Corp. closed its acquisition of Barnett Banks Inc., creating the largest banking company in Florida and the third- largest in the United States.

NationsBank agreed on Aug. 29 to acquire Barnett for $15.5 billion of stock, or 4.1 times book value, in what was the most expensive bank acquisition ever at the time. The price was surpassed by the $17 billion being paid by First Union Corp. for CoreStates Financial Corp. in a deal expected to close April 30.

With the addition of Barnett, NationsBank said, it has about $310 billion of assets and the largest market capitalization of any U.S. bank.

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