ROANOKE TIMES 

                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: WEDNESDAY, May 16, 1990                   TAG: 9005160177
SECTION: BUSINESS                    PAGE: A-9   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: From staff and wire reports
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

SOVRAN-C&S MERGER EXPECTED, OFFICIAL SAYS

A merger that will create one of the largest banks in the United States is on track for approval by state and federal regulators, the chairman of Sovran Financial Corp. said Tuesday at the company's annual stockholders' meeting in Norfolk.

Shareholders of the Norfolk-based Sovran and The Citizens and Southern Corp. of Atlanta approved the merger in February. The resulting $50 billion company, Avantor Financial Corp., would be the nation's 14th largest banking firm.

Albert Gornto, Sovran's chairman, said regulators in each of the nine states in which Sovran and C&S operate must approve the merger. The U.S. Small Business Administration, the federal Trade Commission, the Internal Revenue Service, several state insurance commissioners and the Federal Reserve Board also must approve the merger.

An analyst who follows Virginia banks said Monday she believes it will be mid-September at the earliest before Sovran Bank merges with Citizens & Southern of Atlanta.

Lacy Shockley of Smith Barney in New York, believes regulators will want to see federal audits of the real estate portfolios of both banks before they approve the merger.

Sovran, Virginia's largest bank-holding company, currently is undergoing an audit by the Comptroller of the Currency.

Shockley said Citizens & Southern was relatively unscathed by a recent, similar examination, which the comptroller eventually will be conducting at all banks.

Citizens & Southern's first-quarter earnings equalled 64 cents a share compared to 90 cents a share a year earlier. The bank set aside a 33-cent-per-share charge as a special addition to loan loss reserve. Without that charge, earnings would have been 97 cents a share. 


 by CNB