In Brief: Synovus-FABP Deal Barely Beats Deadline

COLUMBUS, Ga. — With less than a day left to initiate pooling-of-interests mergers, Synovus Financial Corp. snuck in under the wire Friday when it announced a $100 million deal for FABP Bancshares Inc in Pensacola, Fla.

Synovus said it would merge FABP’s subsidiary, $302 million-asset First American Bank of Pensacola, into its subsidiary, Bank of Pensacola, creating the largest bank based in northwest Florida, with $583 million of assets. The acquisition is expected to close in the first quarter of 2001.

The Financial Accounting Standards Board voted to eliminate the pooling-of-interests accounting method in mid-May, but allowed any pooling deal announced before June 30 to go forward.

Luther Taylor, Bank of Pensacola’s chairman and chief executive officer, said that the pooling of interest deadline, coupled with the fact that another company was looking to buy FABP, influenced the timing of the acquisition.

“A year ago we were having conversations with them and in the last 30 to 45 days we put some urgency on it when we realized it was more advantageous to use pooling,” Mr. Taylor said.

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