Under terms of the sales agreement inked in September, Compass will exchange about 6.8 million shares of its common stock for all of the outstanding shares of FirsTier. "It's about a $170-million deal," Reid Godbolt, the Denver attorney who represented FirsTier tells GlobeSt.com.
Godbolt says banks are highly capital intensive businesses, and it would be difficult to raise the needed money in today's environment for FirsTier to continue to grow. The owner had decided it would be better to sell than try to raise the capital, says Godbolt, a partner with Jones & Keller PC.
FirsTier is the parent of FirsTier Bank, an $815-million asset bank with 17 full-service banking offices along the Interstate 25 corridor between Colorado Springs to the south and Fort Collins to the north. FirsTier also is the parent of Firstate Bank, which has two full-service offices in western and central Nebraska. The Nebraska bank has $85 million in assets.
Compass had entered the Denver market in April by purchasing MegaBank Financial Corp. It also has operations in Texas, New Mexico, north Florida, Arizona and Alabama.
Compass Bancshares Inc. has more than $20 billion in assets. The company's earnings per share have increased for 12 consecutive years and dividends per share have increased for 19 consecutive years.
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