In case you needed even more evidence that Simmons First National Corp. is moving forward, there’s this:
On Jan. 15, the Pine Bluff bank holding company registered a Cessna 560XL with the Federal Aviation Administration.
The jet, a 2005 model, is Simmons’ first corporate aircraft. When we emailed CEO George Makris Jr. to ask about it, he responded: “It is a long way from Wichita to Knoxville!”
That would be south-central Kansas to east Tennessee, obviously.
Simmons First National Bank has had branches in Wichita since its 2010 acquisition of Security Savings Bank of Olathe, Kansas. But it doesn’t yet have any branches in Tennessee.
That’s because its acquisition of Community First Bancshares Inc. of Union City and its $1.9 billion subsidiary First State Bank, announced back in May, only got approval last Thursday and won’t be completed until Feb. 27.
“We have been expecting it any day for three months,” Makris wrote.
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