By Mary Rainwater
Staff Reporter
HUNTSVILLE —
Huntsville’s First State Bank will soon be the focus of change as Abilene-based First Financial Bankshares Inc. announced Thursday that it will be acquire the local banking institution’s parent company, Sam Houston Financial Corporation.
“We have just grown so fast that we weren’t able to offer certain services to our customers — like trust services or mortgages,” First State Bank CEO James Baine said. “We wanted to join up with a company that could offer those services while not letting go of the community aspect, and First Financial does that for us.”
The acquisition of First State Bank expands First Financial Bankshares’ growing Texas footprint into Huntsville — bringing together the two successful institutions to better meet the needs of the community.
“We are very impressed with the Huntsville and Walker County area because of the community and solid economic base,” First Financial Chairman, President and CEO F. Scott Dueser said. “First State Bank of Huntsville has had consistent growth throughout the years and is rated one of the highest performing banks in the state.
“We welcome the opportunity to bring expanded banking and wealth management services to the market and look forward to welcoming First State Bank into the financially strong and growing First Financial Bankshares’ family of community banks.”
Headquartered in Abilene, First Financial Bankshares is a financial holding company that operates 10 separately charted banks with 50 locations in Texas. It was named the top-performing bank in the nation of publicly traded banks with assets of at least $3 billion in January 2010.
“Joining First Financial will mean new and expanded products and services for our customers and greater opportunity for our employees,” Baine said, “while allowing us to maintain our focus on serving the local community and making banking decisions on a local basis.”
The acquisition should be finalized in late November or early December, Baine said, with no cuts or major changes being made to local personnel.
“Our bank will continue to have the same friendly people and the same commitment to being involved in the community,” he said, “but with the added resources of a highly respected larger banking organization.
“We will soon be able to offer an expanded array of depository products, instant issue custom debit cards, a larger lending capacity, mortgage lending and trust services,” he added. “We aren’t going anywhere.”
As of Aug. 31, 2010, First State Bank had total assets of $164.2 million and total deposits of $147.1 million. It was founded almost 10 years ago by Baine and current chairman of the board Walter Nelson.
First Financial Bankshares Inc. is listed on the NASDAQ Global Select Market under the trading symbol FFIN. For more information about First Financial, visit www.ffin.com.
