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Planned Bank Buy Not First Time for Pinnacle, Central to Consider Merger

2 min read

The proposed sale of Pinnacle Bancshares Inc. marks a second go-around of sorts for Central Bank of Little Rock.

Back in 2009, the $81 million-asset lender intended to merge with Pinnacle Bank of Rogers under the Pinnacle Bancshares banner. At the time, Pinnacle Bank’s asset total stood at $126 million.

That deal went dark as Pinnacle Bank was hammered by losses that topped $6.2 million by year’s end. A public consent agreement with the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. followed in April 2010.

Pinnacle consented to the order without admitting or denying charges of unsafe or unsound banking practices relating to operating with insufficient capital, liquidity and earnings, with an excessive volume of low-quality assets, and with inadequate policies and procedures.

Pinnacle’s first CEO, Joe Mills, left in 2007. Mills had helped launch the startup effort in August 2004 after leaving as president of Simmons First Bank of Northwest Arkansas in Rogers.

Pinnacle opened for business in Bentonville before moving to Rogers, backed with $15.1 million in capital from more than 100 investors that included Cross County Bancshares Inc. of Wynne.

Another banking concern once owned a piece of Pinnacle too. Trust-Banc Financial Group Inc., holding company of Mountain Home’s $114.5 million-asset TrustBanc, held a nearly 5 percent stake. That position was liquidated in advance of its $26.6 million sale in 2005 to Jonesboro’s Liberty Bancshares Inc.

The size of Pinnacle and Central flip-flopped during the past seven years as Pinnacle Bank has battled through bad loans, many of them secured by real estate.

The contemplated transaction now in play features an $89 million-asset Pinnacle Bank merging with a $115 million-asset Central Bank. Pinnacle Bancshares will evaporate.

Pinnacle Bank, Rogers
(As of June 30)

Total Assets: $89.5 million
Net Income: $54,000
Equity Capital: $10.4 million
OREO: $13.2 million
Full-service location: 1 (Rogers)
Staff: 9

  Total Assets OREO Net Income
2015 $88,447 $14,715 $240
2014 $89,994 $17,649 $472
2013 $88,936 $21,861 $158
2012 $87,440 $20,938 $156
2011 $88,374 $14,948 $1,116
2010 $95,497 $9,527 -$1,758
2009 $111,544 $8,684 -$6,286
2008 $121,509 $6,609 $339
2007 $152,141 $6,045 -$1,686
2006 $152,433 0 $1,762
2005 $106,406 0 $878
2004 $56,266 0 -$365

*Dollars in thousands.
Source: Federal Deposit Insurance Corp.

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