The BB&T Bank is now in Florida as it completed the purchase of First South Bank’s parent company last month.
The $271.5 million merger is based on BB&T’s closing price on the purchase date of $37.37. BB&T will issue 7.265 million shares of its stock in exchange for all outstanding shares of Regional Financial Corporation.
Regional Financial is the holding company for First South Bank, a $1.6 billion thrift. First South operates 11 full-service retail branches, three limited-service branches, and eight mortgage loan production offices in Tallahassee and the Florida Panhandle, Jacksonville, and along the Gulf Coast from Beverly Hills to Naples.
In 2001, First South was the No. 3 residential mortgage lender and the No. 1 construction lender in the counties it serves.
First South will assume the BB&T name at systems conversion scheduled for November.
Winston-Salem-based BB&T Corporation operates more than 1,100 banking offices in the Carolinas, Georgia, Virginia, Maryland, West Virginia, Kentucky, Tennessee, Alabama, Florida, Indiana and Washington, D.C.
With $76.3 billion in assets as of June 30, BB&T Corp. is the nation’s 14th largest financial holding company. Barron’s, a Dow Jones weekly, ranks BB&T as the second highest performing financial institution in the country. More information is available at www.BBandT.com.