First National Bank of Omaha will buy $2.2 billion-asset CCB Financial Corp. this year, expanding deeper into the Midwest’s sixth biggest market, Kansas City.
The deal will grow FNBO, a subsidiary of First National Bank of Nebraska, to roughly $35 billion in assets, and will combine two privately-owned, family-led banks into one company. Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed.
“At FNBO, we know that long-term relationships are the cornerstone of community growth, and we were inspired by Country Club Bank's shared commitment to that ideal,” said FNBO Chairman and President Clark Lauritzen in a prepared statement.
“This is an exciting opportunity to bring together the best of both FNBO and Country Club Bank, combining our strengths, expertise and commitment to customer service to create a stronger, more innovative financial partner for not only the Kansas City area, but the entire FNBO footprint,” he said.
Lauritzen is the sixth generation of his family to run the bank and its parent company FNNI, according to a speech he gave last year at the Kansas City Fed, where he is a director. FNNI is controlled by the Lauritzen family, and a limited number of shares are held by unrelated parties, according to a spokesperson.
CCB Financial’s subsidiary, Country Club Bank, was founded as Ward Parkway Bank in 1953 and has grown to an institution with $1.8 billion in deposits and $2.8 billion in assets under management.
Since 1985, CCB has been led by the Thompson family, then by Kansas City entrepreneur Byron Thompson and since then by his second- and third-generation descendants. CEO Paul Thompson is Byron’s son.
On the acquisition, which is pending regulatory approval, Thompson said bank leadership is “confident FNBO is the right partner to maintain this legacy and take it even further into the future.”
The deal will add 20 locations in the greater Kansas City area – in both Missouri and Kansas – to FNBO’s current 100-branch network in Kansas, Nebraska, Colorado, Wyoming, South Dakota, Illinois, Texas and Iowa.
FNBO already operates 10 locations in and around Kansas City. At present, it’s the 16th-largest bank in the Kansas City area based on deposit share, and the acquisition will bump its rank to 9th-largest by deposit share, a spokesperson said.
