BB&T in Talks to Buy More Asset Managers

BB&T Corp., which last week announced an agreement to buy a smallish asset manager, said it expects to make several more such announcements by yearend.

The Winston-Salem, N.C., company is talking with several potential targets, said Raymond K. McCulloch, the executive vice president of BB&T Trust, a Raleigh division of its Branch Banking and Trust Co.

BB&T had announced plans the day before to buy Southeastern Trust Co. of Greenville, S.C., which has $700 million of assets under management. The price was not disclosed; the deal, which requires regulatory approval, is expected to close in October.

Mr. McCulloch said Thursday that John Allison, BB&T’s chairman and chief executive officer, had outlined the acquisition strategy at the start of the year.

“He said that we’d be buying smaller asset management firms in our footprint,” Mr. McCulloch. “Trust companies manage money, so this fits right into what we want to do.”

Southeastern Trust would give BB&T a foothold with affluent individuals and institutional investors in South Carolina while adding two cities to its outposts there, Mr. McCulloch said.

“We were in Greenville, Columbia and Florence, which is right near Myrtle Beach, but we weren’t in Charleston or Anderson — both cities where Southeastern Trust has a good presence.”

Southeastern is most valuable to BB&T for its executives, particularly their expertise in estate planning, Mr. McCulloch said. “The founder and most of the top management all have deep roots in the state, and they are all highly knowledgeable about the field.”

Southeastern’s estate planning experts will be able to call on the expertise of BB&T’s personal trust officers, estate planning advisers, and insurance unit and vice versa, he said.

Francis P. Maybank, Southeastern’s founder and president, said he will become a senior vice president and concentrate on money management and marketing.

Hugh Graham, Southeastern’s executive vice president and the manager of its Columbia, S.C., office, will become BB&T’s manager for the state, Mr. Maybank and Mr. McCulloch said.

Christopher M. Mutascio, an analyst with Legg Mason Wood Walker in Baltimore, said he expects BB&T — the nation’s 16th largest financial holding company, with $68.9 billion of assets — to buy more asset management boutiques.

“Most banks are unable to get away from their silos,” Mr. Mutascio said. “BB&T is one of the few banks that can really do cross-selling,” he said, and more assets under management will give them the piece they need.

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