STARKVILLE – In many respects, the story of Cadence Bank is the story of the recovery of the U.S. banking industry, said Cadence Bank President Mark Abernathy.
“The Federal Reserve just released its test of the largest banks in the industry and it shows that the industry is getting much stronger and is well on the way to full recovery,” Abernathy explained Thursday.
Last week, Cadence Bancorp LLC — the parent company of Cadence Bank — announced the acquisition of Encore Bancshares, Inc., a Houston, Texas-based commercial bank with $1.5 billion in assets. Abernathy, who has been with the Starkville-based Cadence Bank since 1994 and its president since 1996, says the acquisition represents another stage of growth for the bank, one which will have a positive impact not only throughout the bank’s six-state service area, but in the Starkville and Golden Triangle communities as well.
“It’s great news for our area,” Abernathy said. “I think it has some very positive implications for our continued growth here in the Golden Triangle area. Our operations center in Starkville services all of the banks in the six-state area. We have 125 employees working there and in the last year alone, we added 25 jobs there and spent $4 million in technology upgrades.
“Beyond that, there are some really positive implications for the local suppliers we use, from IT support to office supplies, insurance,” he added. “It also strengthens our relationship Mississippi State (University), particularly its engineering and IT programs, which have provided a great labor pool for us. Bringing in a really good bank, like Encore, only makes us stronger across the board. It really is good news for us and the communities we serve.”
The acquisition of Encore marks the most recent development in what has been a tumultuous couple of years for Cadence. Cadence Bancorp, founded in 2010, purchased Cadence Bank in March of 2011, then acquired Superior Bank of Birmingham, Ala., the following month. The two banks merged to form Cadence Bank, N.A., in November, with headquarters in Birmingham.
The merger gave Cadence more than 100 banking locations in Mississippi, Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Tennessee and Texas. At the close of 2011, Cadence reported total assets of $3.9 billion, total loans of $2.3 billion and total deposits of $3.1 billion.
Encore has 12 banking locations, all in the Houston area.
Cadence will pay $20.62 per share, or about $250 million, for the approximately 12.1 million outstanding shares of Encore stock.
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