Mercantile Bancorp Inc.'s incoming chief executive sees variety as the key for the Quincy, Ill., company as it tries to double its assets over the next five years.
The multibank holding company has banks in Illinois, Missouri, and Kansas, and Ted T. Awerkamp, a vice president who will take over as CEO in March, said it will continue to eye acquisitions in those states.
But he said the $1.4 billion-asset Mercantile probably cannot reach its goal of $3 billion of assets by sticking to its home markets, which is why it has been buying stakes in start-up banks elsewhere and just bought a Florida bank.
"Our core, where we have established ourselves in the past 20 years, are solid markets, but they are not growth markets," Mr. Awerkamp said.
Mercantile closed on its $42.7 million acquisition of the $147 million-asset Royal Palm Bancorp Inc. in Naples, Fla., on Nov. 13.
According to SNL Financial LC, it is one of at least six Midwest banking companies to have announced deals this year to buy banks in Florida, where the economy is considered more robust.
In addition to buying whole banks, since July 2000 Mercantile has invested in start-up banks in suburbs of Atlanta, Charlotte, Kansas City, Memphis, and St. Louis. Mr. Awerkamp said it began looking at making investments when it had heard others were doing so.
"We had some capital and needed to figure out a way to deploy it," he said. "Acquisitions were at a pricey stage, and it seemed like something to try."
Investing in banks has paid off for Mercantile.
Earlier this month it said it would record a $2.9 million gain this quarter because of its $1.1 million investment in the $140 million-asset GBC Bancorp Inc. of Lawrenceville, Ga.
The $4.8 billion-asset First Charter Corp. in Charlotte bought GBC on Nov. 1.
Mr. Awerkamp, 49, was named in September to succeed Dan S. Dugan as Mercantile's president and chief executive March 1, when Mr. Dugan will retire. Mr. Dugan will remain chairman of the board.
Mr. Awerkamp was chief operating officer of Mercantile Trust and Savings Bank in Quincy from 1993 to 2005 and has been a director at that bank since 1994. He has been a director, vice president, and secretary of Mercantile Bancorp since 1994.
Mercantile, which has bought nine banks and a majority stake in another since its founding in 1983, has also been consolidating banks.
On Nov. 4 it merged the $25 million-asset State Bank of Augusta, Ill., and the $46 million-asset Security State Bank of Hamilton, Ill., into the $89 million-asset Marine Bank and Trust of Carthage, Ill. On July 15 it merged the $23 million-asset Golden State Bank of Golden, Ill., into the $53 million-asset Brown County State Bank of Mount Sterling, Ill.
Mr. Awerkamp said Mercantile mainly wanted to have fewer annual examinations, though it also wanted lower overhead.
Mercantile would consider combining subsidiaries if it made sense, he said. "In a company where we have multiple charters, we have to make efficiency plays where we can."
