BancTrust Financial Group Inc. in Mobile, Ala., is selling its Sweet Water State Bank subsidiary to a group headed by Sweet Water chief executive Stratton F. Lewis.
BancTrust, a four-bank holding company with $1.2 billion of assets, bought the $52 million-asset Sweet Water for $12 million in September 1999. W. Bibb Lamar Jr., BancTrust's president and chief executive officer, said in a press release issued late Thursday that it is selling the 92-year-old bank so that BancTrust can "allocate more resources to our growth markets, while also providing a means for us to place Sweet Water State Bank in the hands of local owners who have a vested interest in that bank and that community."
The price was not disclosed.
Sweet Water, which is in the Alabama town of the same name, has three branches. It would become a unit of Tombigbee Bancshares Inc., a newly created holding company consisting primarily of bank officers and directors. They include Mr. Lewis, who is also Sweet Water's chairman and president.
