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Wednesday, Aug. 12, 1998
Norwest still plans Mercantile acquisition
Negotiations awaiting return of principal shareholder
By JEFFREY TOMICH
Staff WriterNorwest Corp. is still interested in acquiring Brownsville-based Mercantile Bank, but negotiations will have to await the return of one of the principals who is out of the country, officials for both banks say.
Norwest and Hemisphere Financial Ltd., the holding company for Mercantile Bank, signed a letter of intent on June 3 and jointly announced they were working quickly to negotiate a definitive agreement.
However, the banks confirmed this week that the 60-day letter of intent has expired and that negotiations won't continue until Hemisphere Financial's chairman and principal shareholder, Olegario Vazquez Rana, returns from a vacation in Europe.
``They were still talking, but Mr. Rana is in Europe and I don't think anything will be done before the first week of September,'' said Graciela Gutierrez, chief executive and director general of Mercantile Bank.
Mercantile has assets of $850 million with nine bank offices in Corpus Christi, two in Brownsville and one in Harlingen.
Norwest, a $96 billion financial services company, operates 176 bank branches in Texas and more than 150 other mortgage, investment and financial services offices in the state.
In the Coastal Bend, Norwest currently operates a mortgage office in Corpus Christi and a bank branch in Robstown. It has said it wants to acquire Mercantile in order to break into the Brownsville and Corpus Christi markets.
Though negotiations won't continue for several weeks while Rana is out of the country, Norwest is still interested in pursuing a deal with Mercantile Bank, said Jay Freeman, a spokesman for Norwest Bank-Texas.
``We still have a keen interest in the Mercantile franchise,'' Freeman said, adding that lapse of the 60-day letter of intent ``isn't material to negotiations.''
Mercantile Bank has sought a buyer for more than two years. The bank was to be acquired by Laredo National Bancshares Inc. in a 1996 deal that stalled in January after the Federal Reserve Board failed to give its approval.
Less than a week after announcing the letter of intent to buy Mercantile Bank, Norwest announced a $31.4 billion merger with fellow banking giant Wells Fargo.Post your comments about local news eventsFront Page || Main Index || News || Business || Texas || South Texas Outdoors || Birdwatching || Sports || Entertainment || Selena || Education || South Texas Attractions || World Wide Web