C&S;/Sovran, NCNB Looking Into a Merger
NCNB Corp., known in the banking world for aggressive growth, is negotiating with rival C&S;/Sovran Corp. over a possible merger that would create the nation’s second-largest bank.
Both banks confirmed Wednesday that talks were under way, and experts who follow the banking business said a marriage was logical in the ferociously competitive and unstable world of U.S. banking.
Many banks are seeking partners in other states to increase their size and geographic diversity to help counterbalance the regional economic downturns that have hurt many banking companies.
C&S;/Sovran, which is headquartered in Atlanta, is the product of a bank merger last year after thwarting a takeover offer from NCNB, which is based in Charlotte.
It said Chairman Bennett A. Brown was meeting with NCNB Chairman Hugh McColl and would report to the C&S;/Sovran board today. Brown refused to meet McColl in previous takeover tangle.
“I think it could happen. NCNB could make a reasonably attractive offer,” said bank analyst Richard Stillinger of Keefe, Bruyette & Woods, a New York firm that follows the banking industry. “C&S; would have a lot more difficulty rejecting it than it did two years ago.”
With combined assets of about $116 billion, a merger of the two would rank second only to Citicorp, with assets of nearly $217 billion among the nation’s biggest banking companies.
Wednesday’s developments were little surprise to Stillinger.
“It’s not their style to sit around twiddling their thumbs,” he said of NCNB officials.
NCNB is the seventh-largest banking company in the nation with more than $66 billion in assets. It has 900 branches in North Carolina, South Carolina, Florida, Georgia, Texas, Virginia and Maryland.
C&S;/Sovran ranked 12th with assets of more than $51 billion. The banking company has 1,000 branches in Virginia, Maryland, Tennessee, Kentucky, Georgia, South Carolina, Florida and Washington, D.C.
Top Banks NCNB Corp. has proposed a merger with C&S; / Sovran Corp. that would create the nation’s second-largest banking company. Here are the top U.S. banks, in terms of assets: Rank: 1 Assets in billions: $216.986 Bank, location: Citicorp, New York Rank: 2 Assets in billions: $110.728 Bank, location: BankAmerica Corp., San Francisco Rank: 3 Assets in billions: $98.064 Bank, location: Chase Manhattan Corp., New York Rank: 4 Assets in billions: $93.103 Bank, location: J.P. Morgand & Co. Inc., New York Rank: 5 Assets in billions: $84.731 Bank, location: Security Pacific Corp., Los Angeles Rank: 6 Assets in billions: $73.019 Bank, location: Chemical Banking Corp., New York Rank: 7 Assets in billions: $65.285 Bank, location: NCNB Corp., Charlotte N.C. Rank: 8 Assets in billions: $63.596 Bank, location: Bankers Trust New York Corp., New York Rank: 9 Assets in billions: $61.53 Bank, location: Manufacturers Hanover Corp., New York Rank: 10 Assets in billions: $56.199 Bank, location: Wells Fargo & Co., San Francisco Rank: 11 Assets in billions: $51.356 Bank, location: First Interstate Bancorp., Los Angeles Rank: 12 Assets in billions: $51.237 Bank, location: C&S; / Sovran Corp., Atlanta Source: American Banker
