Baltimore's Mercantile in $65.5M Md. Deal
Mercantile Bankshares Corp. of Baltimore said Friday that it has reached a definitive agreement to buy Union National Bancorp of Westminster, Md., for $65.5 million of stock.Mercantile would swap 1.15 share of its stock for each share of its deal partner. Union National, founded in 1816, has $309 million of assets.
It would be merged with Mercantile's subsidiary Westminster Bank and Trust Co.
The $7.9 billion-asset Mercantile has 17 banking subsidiaries in Maryland, Virginia, and Pennsylvania.
- Matt Andrejczak
N.C. Bank to Buy 5 Divested Offices in State
Capital Bank of Raleigh, N.C., said Friday that it would buy five branches from Centura Banks Inc. and Triangle Bancorp, two North Carolina companies that agreed to merge in August.Centura, with $8.8 billion of assets, and Triangle, with $2.3 billion, were ordered to divest 19 branches as a condition of their merger.
Under the deal announced Friday, Capital would buy four Triangle offices and one from Centura.
The branches, with a combined $75 million of deposits, are in Oxford, Warrenton, Seaboard, and Woodland, N.C. James A. Beck, president of $222 million-asset Capital, said employees of the acquired branches would be offered jobs.
- Taran Provost
2 Shareholder Factions Push Thrift to Sell
A small Chicago thrift company is under pressure from two shareholder groups to sell.Investors say PS Financial Inc., the $112 million-asset parent of Preferred Savings Bank, cannot achieve a 15% to 20% return on equity over the next two years - something they say a larger buyer could do.
They also say a larger company would pay at least $14 or $15 per share; PS Financial shares were at $10.75 Friday afternoon, unchanged.
Last week banking analysts Christopher R. Raffo and David B. Moore of Chicago-based Podesta & Co. sent a letter notifying PS Financial that several Podesta clients plan to vote at the thrift company's annual meeting in April to sell it. But the investors, who together own 5.1% of PS Financial's outstanding shares, would prefer a sale even sooner.
"We don't see any reason management should sit around waiting for the vote," Mr. Raffo said. "The opportunity is in front of them to find a buyer."
In a related matter, Paul J. Duggan, the Chicago investor who launched a proxy battle Nov. 22, said last week that his group plans to nominate candidates for the two open seats on the company's six-member board as a "backup plan" if PS Financial's management does not sell voluntarily.
Mr. Duggan's group includes the Chicago investment firm Jackson Boulevard Partners LP and controls 20.3% of PS Financial's stock.
PS Financial "is very well run," Mr. Duggan conceded. "The problem is, it can't get any better. If shareholders can get $15 per share on a sale, why shouldn't they be given $15? This company easily could sit at $11 for the next three years."
Kimberly P. Rooney, Preferred Financial's president and chief executive officer, said the thrift is weighing its options with strategic advice from Keefe, Bruyette and Woods Inc. in New York. The board expects to decide within two weeks whether to pursue an independent route or seek a sale, she said.
"Even I thought our stock would be trading at $20 or $23 by now, but the market went sideways on us," Ms. Rooney said. "I wish I could change the market because this place is fundamentally as solid as a rock."
- Craig Woker
