Crestar

Crestar Financial Corp. will complete its acquisition of Baltimore-based American National Bancorp Inc. today and close five of American's 10 bank branches, the company said.The Richmond, Va.-based Crestar has informed about 90 of American's 150 employees that they will no longer have jobs. A number of employees have already left.Crestar, which announced the deal last June, is paying $73 million for American. American gives Crestar $505 million in assets, $330 million in deposits, five branches and about 20,000 customer households.

In the Region Crestar Financial's parent says earnings increased 12% SunTrust Banks Inc., the country's ninth-largest bank and parent of Crestar Financial, said yesterday its first-quarter operating earnings rose 12 percent, to $328.3 million, or $1.07 a share. In the comparable period last year, the company earned $292.2 million, or 91 cents. Net income, including $8.9 million in charges taken for its takeover of Crestar Financial, rose to $319.4 million, or $1.04, from $281.7 million, or 87 cents, in the first quarter of 1999.

Crestar Financial Corp. said it will close seven branches operated by Loyola Capital Corp. after approval of the merger of the two banking companies, expected at year's end.Six of the branches slated for closure are in Washington. One office is in Baltimore at Redwood and South Charles streets.William A. Wycoff, executive vice president of Loyola, said yesterday that the branches to be closed overlap with Crestar branches, or have leases near expiration."In all cases, there is either a Crestar or Loyola branch two or three blocks from one another," Mr. Wycoff said.

Cranberry Mall to hold fund-raising gift wrapping Cranberry Mall will offer Valentine's Day gift wrapping Saturday through Feb. 14 for a donation of $2 to go to the American Heart Association. Donations will support research to reduce disability and death from cardiovascular problems. The mall is on Route 140 and Center Street. Information: 410-876-8870. Women's Business Institute to offer online classes The Women's Business Institute is offering online classes in partnership with Carroll Community College.

Crestar Financial Corp. has formed a new group to manage its rapidly growing operations in Maryland.The newly created Maryland region, which will be based in Baltimore, takes over in January after Crestar's expected acquisition of Baltimore's Loyola Capital Corp.As part of the move, the Richmond, Va.-based company yesterday named William C. Harris as chairman of the greater Washington and Maryland region, and William A. Wycoff, executive vice president of Loyola, as president of the Maryland region.

RICHMOND, Va. -- Crestar Financial Corp. stock was up more than 10 percent yesterday as rumors spread that Wachovia Corp. was prepared to make a bid for the Virginia-based bank.Crestar was up $3.50, to $37.75, during the day before closing up 37.5 cents a share at $34.625. Nearly 1.3 million shares changed hands, compared with its three-month daily average of 158,000 shares.Both companies declined to comment, although traders, analysts and arbitrageurs say there was speculation that Wachovia was poised to offer Crestar between $45 and $50 per share, as much as $1.65 billion.

An investment subsidiary of Crestar Financial Corp. has opened an institutional sales office in Baltimore.Crestar Investment Group's Baltimore office will buy and sell securities for large Maryland investors such as insurance companies, municipalities and professional money managers.The office will be staffed by Sarah S. Pelletier and William G. Kadel Jr., who previously worked at Baltimore-based Alex. Brown Inc."Now that we are a Baltimore bank we feel like we need to address the investment needs of our clients in the area," said Ronald L. Thomas, managing director of institutional sales with Crestar Investment Group.

And then there were two.Loyola Capital Corp., the parent of Loyola Federal Savings Bank, yesterday signed an agreement to be sold to Crestar Financial Corp. of Richmond, Va., for $252 million, or $31 a share paid in Crestar stock.The deal, which Loyola alluded to a week ago without naming the buyer, would leave only two independent Baltimore banks with more than $1 billion in assets: Mercantile Bankshares Corp. and Provident Bankshares Corp. It would follow a decade of acquisitions by out-of-state banking companies that has left Baltimore almost entirely a branch town.

Chase Manhattan Corp. said yesterday that it will sell its six Maryland branches to Crestar Financial Corp., helping the Virginia bank's ongoing expansion in the state even as the money-center bank continues its retrenchment to its core markets in metropolitan New York.The acquisition is Crestar's second in Maryland in as many months. In late April it agreed to buy Loyola Capital Corp., parent of Loyola Federal Savings Bank, for $252 million.Included in the sale, terms of which were not disclosed, are about $450 million in deposits, representing 18,000 customer households and $260 million in loans.

Loyola Capital Corp. executives are rooting for Crestar Financial Corp.'s stock to keep climbing.The Richmond, Va.-based banking company's stock has been on a tear, closing at a record $54.12 a share yesterday.The higher Crestar's stock climbs, the better for Loyola shareholders. In May, Loyola agreed to be acquired by Crestar in a deal valued at $259 million."I have to admit I made my own calculations this morning," said James V. McAveney, Loyola's chief financial officer, who was impressed with the rise.

Crestar Bank said yesterday that it plans to open 75 branches inside Safeway Inc. grocery stores in Baltimore and Washington beginning next year.In addition, the bank will install automated teller machines in 123 Safeway stores that operate in Maryland, Virginia and Washington by 2002.Ten ATMs will be placed in stores in greater Baltimore, said J. Scott Wilfong, president of Crestar's Maryland region. "It is a significant investment. It is a real opportunity for us to continue to expand our franchise here," Wilfong said.

Programs that provide back-to-school supplies for the needy are looking for money and other donations.The Anne Arundel County Department of Social Services and the Board of Education has 200 low-income elementary school pupils still in need of backpacks and school supplies for the first day of school.Would-be donors are matched with pupils who need supplies. They then may deliver a book bag of whatever the children need to their schools by Aug. 30. School starts the next day. Cash donations also are accepted.

Chesapeake Investors declares dividendThe board of directors of Chesapeake Investors Inc., Beltsville, a closed-end management investment company, declared a 0.5 cents-per-share dividend payable April 27 to shareholders of record tomorrow.The board of directors elected Harry F. Breitbach as a director of the corporation, replacing Wilbert N. Sales, a member of the board since 1980 who died March 8. Breitbach was the assistant to the president of Citizens Bank of Maryland, which was acquired by Crestar Financial Corp.

New positionsAnnapolis publication names Wilner associate publisherCall Center Management Review appointed Ann Wilner associate publisher. She will work to expand the circulation and readership of the Annapolis-based trade publication and newsletter to an international level.In the business-to-business publishing industry for 15 years, she formerly was marketing manager for UCG home care division, where she was responsible for its line of home health publications. The Annapolis resident is a graduate of the University of Colorado and is active in several civic and community organizations, including Parents & Children Together.

After several years of rising profits and stock prices, the banking industry is heading for tougher times this year, experts say.Competition is intensifying with cutthroat pricing, finding good loans is becoming more difficult, and a downturn in the economy could sap earnings."

Crestar Financial Corp. reported yesterday that third-quarter earnings rose 12 percent to a record $88.9 million, aided by the sale of credit-card loans, strong growth in services that charge customers fees, and fewer problem loans.Richmond, Va.-based Crestar, which employs about 700 people in Baltimore, hit Wall Street estimates, making 78 cents per diluted share for the three months that ended Sept. 30, up 10 percent from the corresponding period in 1997, according to a survey conducted by Zacks Investment Research.

Crestar Financial Corp. said yesterday that its fourth-quarter earnings grew 7 percent, hobbled by merger-related charges and increased losses in its credit card portfolio.The Richmond, Va.-based banking company earned $38.2 million, or 67 cents a share, in the fourth quarter of 1996, compared with $35.6 million, or 63 cents a share, for the same period a year earlier.Shares of Crestar closed yesterday at $70.50, down 37.5 cents a share."I think we earned respectable returns on an operating basis," said Eugene S. Putnam Jr., Crestar's head of investor relations.

The acquisition of Loyola Capital Corp., Baltimore's largest thrift, by Crestar Financial Corp. moved another step ahead yesterday with the signing of a definitive agreement.The deal, valued at about $250 million, is expected to be completed by the end of the year after the necessary regulatory and stockholder approvals, according to Barry Koling, a spokesman for Richmond, Va. based Crestar.While Mr. Koling declined to discuss how the two operations would be integrated, he said few of Loyola's 35 branches would be closed.

Crestar Financial Corp., one of the region's largest independent banking companies, said yesterday that it has agreed to be acquired by Atlanta-based SunTrust Banks Inc. for $9.5 billion.The deal will create the 10th-largest banking company in the country with $88 billion in assets, 3.3 million customers and 1,093 branches in six states, including Maryland, and the District of Columbia."This is going to create a powerful combination," said Richard G. Tilghman, Richmond-based Crestar's chairman and chief executive, who will retain his job and become vice chairman of SunTrust's board.

Hit by the loss of a major tenant and a shift of the city's central business district, the Crestar Bank Building has been scheduled for foreclosure auction next month.The inability of the owners, Calvert-Baltimore Associates, to pay their $51.4 million debt on the 25-story tower comes amid one of the hottest commercial real estate markets in Baltimore's history and underscores the fragility of downtown's office market, analysts said.Teachers Insurance and Annuity Association (TIAA), the New York pension fund that lent the developers money to construct the 120 E. Baltimore St. tower in the late 1980s, is to auction the building Aug. 19."