Community Bankers Trust’s headquarters in Innsbrook. (photo by Michael Schwartz)
A local bank will no longer have Georgia on its mind.
Essex Bank and its Glen Allen parent company have struck a deal to unload four branches and a big pile of deposits in Georgia in an effort to exit that market and focus on its operations in Virginia and Maryland.
Georgia-based Community & Southern Bank will acquire the four locations east of Atlanta and $192 million in deposits.
Rex Smith, president and chief of executive of Essex and its parent Community Bankers Trust Corp. said the total price tag of the deal is around $7.5 million. The transaction is expected to close in November.
Essex jumped into the Georgia market in late 2008 by acquiring the assets of a failed bank there from the FDIC.
“At the time we bought it, it was a whole different scenario our bank was in,” Smith said. “We weren’t sure where the bank’s major footprint would be”
Rex Smith
The company has since narrowed its focus.
“The core franchise is obviously going to be Virginia and into Maryland. Having this little island 500 miles away just didn’t make sense,” Smith said.
Community & Southern approached Essex about doing a deal, Smith said. The bank has 34 branches in and around the Atlanta market.
“We knew at some point somebody would come along and want this group [of assets].”
Smith said the getting the Georgia holdings off the books will save the bank more than $1 million a year in expenses.
The deal frees up time and resources to focus on expanding Essex further north. It took its first step in that direction in May when it purchased a branch in Annapolis, Md. It now has six branches in Maryland and 13 in Virginia.
“We are very anxious about expanding that core market base,” Smith said. “We’re going to look from the eastern part of Virginia right up I-95 and straight up to Baltimore.”
The move in Georgia follows several milestones for the bank that included being released from a burdensome regulatory written agreement and beginning to buy its way out of the TARP Capital Purchase Program.
Community Bankers Trust is also in the midst of preparing to move its headquarters from Innsbrook to a 27,500-square-foot space in Deep Run III, part of the former Circuit City complex in Glen Allen.
Community Bankers Trust’s headquarters in Innsbrook. (photo by Michael Schwartz)
A local bank will no longer have Georgia on its mind.
Essex Bank and its Glen Allen parent company have struck a deal to unload four branches and a big pile of deposits in Georgia in an effort to exit that market and focus on its operations in Virginia and Maryland.
Georgia-based Community & Southern Bank will acquire the four locations east of Atlanta and $192 million in deposits.
Rex Smith, president and chief of executive of Essex and its parent Community Bankers Trust Corp. said the total price tag of the deal is around $7.5 million. The transaction is expected to close in November.
Essex jumped into the Georgia market in late 2008 by acquiring the assets of a failed bank there from the FDIC.
“At the time we bought it, it was a whole different scenario our bank was in,” Smith said. “We weren’t sure where the bank’s major footprint would be”
Rex Smith
The company has since narrowed its focus.
“The core franchise is obviously going to be Virginia and into Maryland. Having this little island 500 miles away just didn’t make sense,” Smith said.
Community & Southern approached Essex about doing a deal, Smith said. The bank has 34 branches in and around the Atlanta market.
“We knew at some point somebody would come along and want this group [of assets].”
Smith said the getting the Georgia holdings off the books will save the bank more than $1 million a year in expenses.
The deal frees up time and resources to focus on expanding Essex further north. It took its first step in that direction in May when it purchased a branch in Annapolis, Md. It now has six branches in Maryland and 13 in Virginia.
“We are very anxious about expanding that core market base,” Smith said. “We’re going to look from the eastern part of Virginia right up I-95 and straight up to Baltimore.”
The move in Georgia follows several milestones for the bank that included being released from a burdensome regulatory written agreement and beginning to buy its way out of the TARP Capital Purchase Program.
Community Bankers Trust is also in the midst of preparing to move its headquarters from Innsbrook to a 27,500-square-foot space in Deep Run III, part of the former Circuit City complex in Glen Allen.