It’s just one merger after another for Farmers and Merchants Bank of Rogers.
The bank was still in the process of absorbing Federal Savings Bank, a deal announced last October, when Regions Financial Corp. revealed in early February a stock-swap in which it will acquire First Commercial Corp., parent company of Farmers and Merchants.
In fact, the First Commercial-Regions deal came just days after Farmers and Merchants had announced it would begin using the First Commercial name on March 13, when the FSB merger would be complete.
“We will still go on and take the First Commercial name,” says Tom L. Wray, chairman and CEO of Farmers and Merchants. “We’re still on schedule to merge FSB into Farmers and Merchants Bank during the month of March.”
But, at some point, that First Commercial name will change to Regions Bank of Rogers. Wray predicts that won’t be until the fourth quarter of 1998 or even early 1999.
The Regions-First Commercial deal, valued at $2.7 billion, will make Kemmons Wilson even wealthier.
Wilson is the Memphis businessman who founded the Holiday Inn chain. His business interests included KW Bancshares Inc., a bank holding company that owned Federal Savings Bank. In October, Wilson agreed to sell that company to First Commercial in a deal valued at $56 million.
The Regions-First Commercial deal, in which shareholders will get 1.7 shares of Regions stock for each share of First Commercial stock they hold, increases Wilson’s stock value by 36 percent to $76.2 million.
Wray says the deal should be good for customers because Regions offers some services currently not available with First Commercial, including personal computer home banking, as well as a cash management package for business customers.
The merger will also give customers greater access to their account information since Regions banks throughout the Southwest will be able to access that information and process transactions, Wray
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