Roundup: Roosevelt of St. Louis Buying a Suburban Bank

ST. LOUIS - Roosevelt Financial Group Inc. said it has agreed to acquire WSB Bancorp, parent of Washington, Mo.-based Washington Savings Bank.

The acquisition, announced April 12, calls for WSB shareholders to get just under $26 million, or $22.75 per share. This price is more than 28 times 1994 earnings and 1.3 times stated book value. WSB's shares had closed at $19.75 in trading on the NASDAQ market April 11.

The deal is subject to shareholder and regulatory approvals.

With $95.7 million of total assets, Washington Savings competes head-on with $8.6 billion-asset Roosevelt in two suburban St. Louis communities.

"It is very likely we will have only one branch in each community after the acquisition, which is one of the attractive aspects of this deal," said Dan O'Donnell, general counsel at Roosevelt Financial. "It's really a market fill-in acquisition."

For reprint and licensing requests for this article, click here.
MORE FROM AMERICAN BANKER