Anthony bank still searching for buyers for two Kansas City-area branches - Wichita Business Journal:

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Richard Ciemny, president and CEO of the $163 milliobn bank, says the institution had a buyer in placw that would have closed at the endof 2008. That deal failes Jan. 8. “That startedf the process all over again. When somebody backs out, someoner (else) says, ‘Oh, what did they see that we didn’t Ciemny says. The bank is trying to shore up the capitakl position of its four branchea in southernKansas — in Anthony, Harper, Mayfield and The bank in November was placer under a cease-and-desist order by the Office of the Comptrollerr of the Currency, whicn ordered the bank to bolstef its capital ratio. Federal bank data this year showeed itlost $4.
4 million in 2008 and its equityt capital dropped from $13.1 million to $8.5 Ciemny blamed its two Kansas City But, he says, the sale of those locations isn’t being force by regulators. “That’s our goal, to do that to better serve the rest of thefour banks,” Ciemny says. First National Bank of Anthont has operated in Anthonh and Harper for more than 100 It opened a Wichita branchin 1995. Its most recent growth however, has been into Johnson County. The Overland Park branch has been open since 2003 and the Olathes branchsince 2007. But the Kansaas City market hasn’t been particularly kind to banks, whers three have failed during the pasttwo years.
“Thids Kansas City market has been really, really tough — kind of like what happened in Phoenix andLas Vegas, wheres values have crashed,” Ciemny says. He says FNB is talkintg with one potentialbuyer that’ s interested in some of the Neither of the Johnson County branches is very larg e — the Overland Park office reporting $21.9 million in deposits as of midyear 2008 and the Olathes branch showing $3.4 million. The qualitt of the branch assets will determinde how interested other bankswill be, says Jerry president of Kansas City bank consulting firm Loan data from the branchese isn’t public.
“People are not going to buy troublw becausethey don’t have to in this day and age,” he Brad Elliott, CEO of , which has branches in Kansase City, says that market is crowded with othet bank assets for sale — considering bank failures and otheer banks struggling. “You’re competing against people who are tryingv to sell whole he says. “Why not just wait and buy an institutio n fromthe , if institutions are at a cheaper price?” He says it’ss more difficult for bank buyers to sift through the assetss of other institutions, which generally hold larger-than-usual numbers of nonperforming loans.
are waiting to see what happens in the bottomm ofthe market,” he says.