David Daberko says he is not intimidated by size.
The chairman and chief executive officer of Cleveland-based National City Corp. says he sees no need to change his game plan in the wake of Banc One Corp.'s megadeal to buy First Chicago NBD.
"I think the whole issue is meeting customer needs, and it strikes me that we have pretty good offerings," Mr. Daberko said.
His comments, made in an interview, offer a window on how top bankers are viewing the recent wave of giant deals. Though some are responding by stepping up their own expansion efforts, others have concluded that their earlier plans remain viable. Mr. Daberko clearly puts himself in the latter camp.
The $81 billion-asset National City, which has rapidly emerged as a leader in the Midwest, would suddenly face a rival twice its size in the combined Banc One and First Chicago. But as Mr. Daberko sees it, that is almost beside the point.
He says he faces just as much competition from smaller regional banks, such as Cincinnati's Fifth Third Bancorp and Star Banc Corp.
"I don't think this leaves us anywhere different than where we were before," he said of the Banc One deal.
To be sure, Mr. Daberko is likely to remain active on the merger scene. He said the recently closed merger of Kalamazoo, Mich.-based First of America Bank Corp. was going as planned and that he would not rule out doing another big deal soon.
However, National City would probably not be interested in pairing up with a large multiproduct company like Mellon Bank Corp.
"Our big transactions have been plain-vanilla banks. For us, that strategy sure seems to work," Mr. Daberko said. "On the other hand, there are fewer and fewer plain-vanilla banks out there."
Douglas Walouke, an analyst with Ohio Co. in Columbus, said National City will make a large bank acquisition by yearend. He said Mr. Daberko has plenty of time to seek a merger and add on more assets by the time Banc One and First Chicago close their deal, which is expected in the fourth quarter.
In addition, Mr. Walouke and other analysts predicted National City would maintain its independence, at least for the short term.
Mr. "Daberko seems to be very determined to stay in this business for another five years," Mr. Walouke said.
"They're a niche regional player, and they have the scale to compete," agreed Fred Cummings, with McDonald & Company Securities in Cleveland.
Indeed, Banc One trails both National City and Cleveland-based KeyCorp for deposit market share in its home state. KeyCorp has 11.9%, National City has 10.7%, and Banc One holds 10.5% of Ohio's total deposits.
Mr. Cummings said National City would not feel obligated to do a merger of equals to keep up with its competitors. However, he called a combination of the Cleveland bank and PNC Bank Corp. of Pittsburgh strategically compelling, partly because it would create a company with more than $150 billion of assets.
A PNC spokesman declined to comment.
But Mr. Cummings said such a deal would only make sense if National City bought PNC outright, with no merger of equals.
Analysts agreed that National City was more likely to acquire a smaller regional bank. Some possible candidates include: Detroit-based Comerica Inc.; Columbus-based Huntington Bancshares; Firstar Corp. of Milwaukee; Mercantile Bancorp. of St. Louis; Union Planters Corp. or First Tennessee National Corp., both of Memphis; or First American Corp. of Nashville. These companies either declined to comment or said they were not for sale.
