FC Holdings in Houston says it is planning to use part of the proceeds of a large capital infusion to open two separately chartered banks in the Dallas-Fort Worth area by the end of 2008.
The $443 million-asset FC Holdings said this month that it has a deal to obtain up to $150 million — $75 million up-front and a $75 million option later — from the New York-based JLL Partners Fund FCH, LP.
Wade Schuessler, FC Holdings' president, said in an interview Wednesday that about $32.5 million of the proceeds will be used to complete a deal announced April 28 to buy the $150 million-asset First Crockett Bank in Crockett, Tex.
Once the deal closes, FC Holdings plans to get a charter for First Crockett's branch in Richardson, Tex., so that it can operate as a separate bank.
Richardson, a Dallas suburb, is about 170 miles from Crockett, so Mr. Schuessler said it makes sense for the branch there to operate independently.
FC Holdings also plans to obtain a charter for a bank in Dallas to be run by two bankers it recently hired.
It announced last month that it had hired Frank Brinegar, formerly of PNC Financial Services Group Inc., to be its Dallas market president. Mr. Brinegar co-founded a Dallas operation for Pittsburgh-based PNC in 1998.
Mr. Brinegar is to work with A. James Grant, who joined FC Holdings in May from $1.3 billion-asset Century Bank in New Boston, Tex., where he was regional president.
Until FC Holdings receives the Dallas charter, Mr. Brinegar and Mr. Grant will be booking loans for one of FC Holdings' subsidiaries, the $108 million-asset First Community Bank Central Texas, Mr. Schuessler said.
Establishing the new banks "fits well with our existing strategy of having multiple banks in large metro areas," he said. "Our plan is to build out those franchises and have anywhere between five and eight branches per bank charter in the Dallas market."
Nigel Harrison, FC Holdings' chairman and chief executive officer, founded the company in 2005 after Wells Fargo & Co. bought another company he founded, First Community Capital Corp.
FC is aiming to go public and amass more than $1 billion of assets by the end of 2009, Mr. Schuessler said.
