Gateway Financial Holdings Inc. of Elizabeth City, N.C., is leading its planned expansion into the Moyock, N.C., area with the purchase of Whitehurst Insurance Agency Inc.
Gateway Financial is the holding company for Gateway Bank and Trust Co., which has plans to open its first branch in Moyock this year, near the North Carolina-Virginia border, according to D. Ben Berry, the bank’s chairman, president, and CEO.
Moyock is in Currituck County, “one of the fastest-growing counties in the state of North Carolina,” Mr. Berry said. Gateway announced last Tuesday that the Whitehurst deal closed May 1.
In addition to its Moyock office, Whitehurst has offices in Elizabeth City and Edenton, N.C. It is a property/casualty agency that offers both personal and commercial lines.
With this deal, Gateway Insurance Services has eight offices in the state’s northeastern corner. Its last previous agency deal was made in January 2001 when the bank bought Fidelity Insurance in Plymouth, N.C. But Mr. Berry said his next deal will not be another three years in the making.
“We’re actively looking for agencies now in the Tidewater Virginia market,” he said.
The insurance operation is able to serve all of Gateway’s North Carolina banking markets but lacks any Virginia presence, though the parent bank has offices in the state.
The Tidewater region is an important growth area for the bank, Mr. Berry said, with a population of about 1.7 million. Insurance remains a key component of Gateway’s strategy, he said.
Gateway is No. 36 on the American Bankers Insurance Association list of the 50 bank holding companies with insurance revenues that are the biggest percentage of noninterest income. The list, which the association compiled from data reported by banking companies to the Federal Reserve, said Gateway had $1.48 million of insurance revenue last year, or 34.9% of its $4.2 million in noninterest income.
David Twiddy, a senior executive vice president at the bank and the president of Gateway Insurance Services and Gateway Investment Services, said the insurance unit has about $20 million of annual premium and about 30 employees. Mr. Twiddy is a former partner in the bank’s first agency acquisition, Dowd & Twiddy Insurance Agency, which was bought in 1999.
Gateway Insurance Services plans to combine Whitehurst’s Moyock and Edenton offices with bank branches, he said, but will leave the Elizabeth City office, the largest, as a stand-alone. Gateway Bank has $314.3 million of assets and 10 offices in North Carolina and Virginia.
