Ethics panel tosses St. Bernard claims
The Arkansas Ethics Commission on Friday dismissed complaints filed by St. Bernard Financial Services of Russellville against Heath Abshure, commissioner of the Arkansas Securities Department, and a department attorney, Scott Freydl.
In February, St. Bernard claimed that Abshure and Freydl contacted St. Bernard clients in an attempt to create investor complaints against the company. St. Bernard also said Abshure aggressively campaigned to generate revenue for the department. The firm said Freydl contacted trading companies seeking copies of St. Bernard’s clients’ statements.
The Ethics Commission found that contacting customers during a regulatory investigation was within the authority of the Securities Department. In both cases, the commission voted 4-0, with one member absent, to dismiss the complaints.
The Securities Department filed a complaint in court seeking to suspend the licenses of St. Bernard and its top executive, Robert Keenan, claiming the firm and Keenan had not properly supervised an agent who later testified that he gave $36,000 to state Treasurer Martha Shoffner.
- David Smith
Home BancShares to buy Florida bank
Home BancShares, which owns Conway-based Centennial Bank, has agreed to buy Florida Traditions Bank of Dade City, Fla., Home Banc-Shares said Friday.
Home BancShares will pay $43 million in stock to buy Florida Traditions, which has $312 million in assets and eight offices in central Florida. Florida Traditions also has about $280 million in deposits and almost $250 million in loans.
“[Florida Traditions’] footprint along the [Interstate 4] corridor fits nicely with what Centennial has built over the past several years,” Bud Stalnaker, chief executive officer of Florida Traditions, said in a prepared statement.
Home BancShares is the second-largest Arkansas based bank, with $6.8 billion in assets.
Centennial Bank has 147 branches - 88 in Arkansas, 52 in Florida and seven in Alabama. Home BancShares announced last week that it had entered into a nonbinding letter of intent to buy Florida Traditions.
- David Smith
Arkansas Index slips 2.17; 13 stocks fall
The Arkansas Index, a price-weighted index that tracks the largest public companies based in the state, fell 2.17 to 333.97 Friday.
Thirteen stocks declined and four advanced.
P.A.M. Transportation Services rose 2.7 percent on average volume. Dillard’s lost 1.1 percent in light trading.
For the week, 12 stocks were down and five rose.
P.A.M. Transportation Services rose 9.1 percent for the week while Acxiom lost 7.1 percent.
Total volume of the index was 19.1 million shares. The average daily volume for the week was 24.4 million shares.
The index was developed by Bloomberg News and the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette with a base value of 100 as of Dec. 30, 1997.
Business, Pages 31 on 04/26/2014