Charlotte, N.C.-based NationsBank Corp. said this week it had agreed to sell Superior Federal Bank of Fort Smith, Ark., to an investment group led by Keefe, Bruyette & Woods Inc. for an undisclosed price.
With $1.3 billion of assets and $981 million of deposits in Oklahoma and Arkansas, Superior is a thrift that targets working-class customers.
NationsBank acquired Superior as part of its January purchase of Boatmen's Bancshares.
The deal to sell Superior was announced Tuesday and is scheduled to close in the second quarter; it came after a number of divestitures from the holdings of the former Boatmen's. NationsBank has agreed to sell 34 branches in Arkansas, Kansas, Missouri, Oklahoma, and New Mexico. All the sales are to community banks, and most have been completed or will be complete by the end of the first quarter, NationsBank said.
Superior presented an interesting problem for NationsBank. When St. Louis-based Boatmen's bought the company in 1992 it decided not to change the name or its banking products and essentially ran it as a separate subsidiary. It even allowed Superior's management to make its own acquisitions.
Superior appeals to rural and blue-collar customers primarily by offering totally free checking.
Joseph Edwards, Superior's president and chief executive officer, said NationsBank doesn't offer a free checking account.
NationsBank officials concluded it would be too disruptive to try to convert Superior customers to its own products. So it decided to sell.
"I'm grateful to NationsBank for being sensitive to us and our customers," Mr. Edwards said. "It reflects a lot of wisdom."
Mr. Edwards will remain president and CEO of the bank; C. Stanley Bailey will become chairman and chief executive officer of a new holding company that will be formed and has yet to be named. Mr. Bailey resigned Tuesday as chief financial officer of Hancock Holding Co., a $2.4 billion-asset banking company in Gulfport, Miss., to take the new post.
Superior plans to sell shares to the public within the next 12 to 16 months, said Emmett Daly, a senior vice president in Keefe, Bruyette's investment banking group. Mr. Daly said his firm is still gathering investors and would hold an 8% stake in the company. He would not identify other investors.
Mr. Daly said Superior has good brand recognition and a loyal base of customers in its market area, which is why Boatmen's never changed its name. The thrift is based in a manufacturing hub in western Arkansas near the Oklahoma border. Superior was a troubled mutual company that converted to stock ownership during its acquisition by Boatmen's.
Though expansion is very much in its plans, Superior won't do any deals until after its new holding company goes public and it has stock to trade, Mr. Daly said.
