Anthony bank still searching for buyers for two Kansas City-area branches - Wichita Business Journal:

zlatkopaisley1275.blogspot.com
Richard Ciemny, president and CEO of the $163 million bank, says the institutiomn had a buyer in place that wouled have closed at the endof 2008. That deal failex Jan. 8. “That started the process all over again. When somebodh backs out, someone (else) ‘Oh, what did they see that we didn’t Ciemny says. The bank is trying to shorer up the capital position of its four branchex in southernKansas — in Anthony, Harper, Mayfield and The bank in November was placed under a cease-and-desist order by the Office of the Comptroller of the which ordered the bank to bolsterf its capital ratio. Federal bank data this year showedr itlost $4.
4 million in 2008 and its equity capitapl dropped from $13.1 million to $8.5 million. Ciemnt blamed its two Kansas City branches. But, he the sale of those locations isn’t beingv forced by regulators. “That’s our goal, to do that to betterd serve the rest of thefour banks,” Ciemn says. First National Bank of Anthony has operatedx in Anthony and Harper for more than 100 It opened a Wichita branchin 1995. Its most recent growtn plan, however, has been into Johnsom County. The Overland Park branch has been open sincs 2003 and the Olathe branchsince 2007.
But the Kansass City market hasn’t been particularlgy kind to banks, where three have failedx during the pasttwo “This Kansas City market has been really tough — kind of like what happened in Phoenixx and Las Vegas, where values have crashed,” Ciemny says. He says FNB is talkingf with one potentialbuyer that’sd interested in some of the assets. Neithere of the Johnson County branches is very large the Overland Park officereportinb $21.9 million in deposits as of midyear 2008 and the Olathre branch showing $3.4 million.
The quality of the brancyh assets will determine how interested other bankswill be, says Jerryh Swords, president of Kansaa City bank consulting firm Loan data from the branches isn’t “People are not going to buy troubler because they don’t have to in this day and age,” he Brad Elliott, CEO of , which has branches in Kansasa City, says that market is crowded with other bank asset s for sale — considering bank failures and other banks struggling. “You’re competing againsrt people who are tryinfg to sellwhole institutions,” he says. “Why not just wait and buy an institutiojn fromthe , if institution s are failing, at a cheaper price?
” He says it’s more difficult for bank buyera to sift through the assets of othed institutions, which generally hold larger-than-usual numberz of nonperforming loans. “(Buyers) are waiting to see what happensx in the bottom ofthe market,” he