Simmons acquiring St. Louis-area bank
Simmons First National Corp. is adding to its presence in its Missouri market with the purchase of a small bank in the St. Louis area, the Pine Bluff-based bank said Tuesday.
Simmons agreed to pay 4 million shares of its stock, valued at $42 million, plus $62.7 million in cash to buy Reliance Bancshares of Des Peres, Mo., a St. Louis suburb. Altogether, Simmons is paying $104.7 million.
Reliance has $1.5 billion in assets, $1.2 billion in deposits, $1.1 billion in loans and 22 branches.
"After taking some time to fully integrate our 2017 acquisitions, we are now pleased to announce the next chapter of Simmons' [merger and acquisition] story," said George A. Makris Jr., Simmons' chairman and chief executive officer. "By adding Reliance Bank's 20-plus branches to the Simmons Bank footprint, we will substantially enhance our retail presence within the St. Louis market, where we've already seen success in our commercial lending efforts."
Simmons will hold a conference call at 9 a.m. today to discuss the acquisition. Those interested can listen by dialing (866) 298-7926 and asking for the Simmons call. The conference identification is 247-7463.
-- David Smith
LR port notes surge in '18 barges, cargo
The Port of Little Rock handled 51 barges and 78,000 tons of cargo in October, numbers that made for another "strong month," port officials said.
Last month's totals brought to 469 the number of barges the port worked in the first 10 months of 2018. That is 120 more than the 349 barges the port worked during the same period last year, a 34 percent increase.
Cargo handled at the port surged 36 percent through October, rising to 717,000 tons. In the first 10 months of 2017, the port handled 528,000 tons, or 189,000 fewer tons, according to port officials.
The docks handled a variety of commodities last month, including aluminum ingots, rock and sand, scrap, steel coils, urea, and wire-rod coils, the port said.
-- Noel Oman
State index closes with a loss of 3.79
The Arkansas Index, a price-weighted index that tracks the largest public companies based in the state, dropped 3.79 to 427.48 Tuesday.
Ten stocks fell and five rose.
"Wall Street gave up early gains on Tuesday, with technology and financial stocks fighting to move higher in the face of heavy news, including some signs of progress in trade talks," said Chris Harkins, managing director with Raymond James & Associates in Little Rock.
Total volume for the index was 25.6 million shares.
The index was developed by Bloomberg News and the Democrat-Gazette with a base value of 100 as of Dec. 30, 1997.
Business on 11/14/2018