Bank of Ozarks deals get 2 agencies' OK
Bank of the Ozarks has received regulatory approval from the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. and the Arkansas Bank Department for two acquisitions it announced in the fall, the Little Rock bank said Friday.
Bank of the Ozarks, which has $11.4 billion in assets, announced in the fall that it would buy Community & Southern Holdings of Atlanta, with $4.2 billion in assets, and C1 Financial of Tampa, with $1.7 billion in assets.
The Federal Reserve Bank has yet to approve the two deals, Bank of the Ozarks said.
It expects approval from the Fed by the end of June.
If it receives the final government approval, Bank of the Ozarks will have more than $17 billion in assets, likely making it the largest bank in the state. Arvest Bank of Fayetteville had $15.8 billion in assets at the end of 2015.
-- David Smith
Newspapers merging in publisher's sale
Graves Publishing Co. has agreed to sell the company and its newspaper assets, including the Nashville News, to John Robert Schirmer, a partner with the Nashville Leader, for an undisclosed amount, shareholder Lawrence Graves said Friday.
The assets also include the Glenwood Herald, the Murfreesboro Diamond, and the Montgomery County News in Mount Ida, along with the company's printing press and plant in Nashville, Graves said.
The deal is expected to close May 31. Starting June 1, the new paper will be called the Nashville News-Leader, Schirmer said in an email.
Schirmer said the newspaper would like to hire some of the Graves Publishing employees.
The Graves family has owned the newspapers for years, having bought the Nashville News in 1950.
Schirmer said he was contacted by Graves Publishing in September regarding the possible sale and that the company accepted an offer last month.
-- Jessica Seaman
Index gives up 5.20; Murphy Oil falls 4%
The Arkansas Index, a price-weighted index that tracks the largest public companies based in the state, fell 5.20 to 311.71 Friday. All but one stock lost ground.
Shares of Murphy Oil fell 4 percent in light trading.
Dillard's hit a 52-week low after releasing first-quarter earnings on Thursday that fell short of analysts' expectations.
For the week, 13 stocks declined, four advanced and one was unchanged.
The index was developed by Bloomberg News and the Democrat-Gazette with a base value of 100 as of Dec. 30, 1997.
Business on 05/14/2016