Ohio Officials Weigh Bids for Failed Bank

Gov. Richard F. Celeste met privately with legislative leaders Wednesday to discuss offers from Chemical Bank of New York and an in-state party to buy the closed Home State Savings Bank, state senators said.

Celeste had given Ohio institutions until Wednesday to meet or beat an out-of-state offer that state Sen. Donald Lukens said came from Chemical Bank.

“It appears that Chemical is a legitimate contender, and that there’s also an Ohio offer in the same range,” Lukens, chairman of the Senate Financial Institutions and Insurance Committee, said as he emerged from the meeting with Celeste.

Lukens did not identify the Ohio offer, and he did not say whether it was made by a single company or a group of institutions.

Celeste said Tuesday that an out-of-state offer had been received for Cincinnati-based Home State, whose closing March 8 triggered a panic among some Ohio savings and loan customers and prompted the governor to close 70 privately insured thrifts March 15.

The Wednesday afternoon deadline for Ohio institutions passed with Celeste’s office declining to say whether another offer had been received; Lukens later emerged from the meeting.

The meeting continued late into the night, and Jan Allen, Celeste’s deputy chief of staff, said: “I think this could easily go on all night and into tomorrow. There are just a lot of really thorny problems to work out.”