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Coffee Talk (Sara/Mana)
Bank holds out for nice price
It was not six months ago that Glen W. Fausset, president of 1st National Bank & Trust, was stamping out speculation that the 19-year-old Bradenton bank would be sold.
"A sale is a one-time profit," Fausset told the Gulf Coast Business Review in March. "Our shareholders don't want to sell their investment because they're doing so well here."
As the saying ggoes, everything's for sale - at the right price.
A rich offer from a New Orleans bank holding company evidently changed the minds of Fausset and Francis I. "Rip" duPont III, 1st National Bank & Trust's chairman and CEO.
Whitney Holding Corp. announced July 28 it is acquiring 1st National Bank & Trust's parent, First National Bancshares Inc., for $120 million, or $34.64 a share. The stock and cash transaction requires the approval of those heretofore satisfied shareholders.
The sale price is equal to an astonishing 4.6 times the tangible book value of First National. That figures out to be a 22% premium over the Bradenton bank's 4 p.m. closing price of $28.49 a share on the Nasdaq Small Cap Market on the afternoon before the sale was announced.
"Whitney practices community banking in each location it serves and is unlike some large remote institutions that do not seem to value local customers," duPont says in a Whitney news release announcing the deal. It's worth noting duPont's pre-tax take from the sale should be about $6.3 million, based on duPont's holdings as of March 14.
DuPont, Fausset and Thomas P. Moseley, First National's executive vice president, are also eligible for additional payments, at the time of the scheduled closing of the deal early next year, for ending "certain compensation arrangements," according to regulatory filings.
First National, with $360 million in assets, would be Whitney's third Florida acquisition. The Louisiana bank, which has $8.9 billion in assets spread across five southern states, picked up Palm Harbor-based Madison BancShares Inc. last year.
How much should new homes be assessed?
Let's get a little perspective here. While school and county officials in Manatee and Collier counties are debating how much to increase school impact fees (not whether to increase them) and while Lee County commissioners are expected to double school impact fees on new single-family homes, The Review checked around. The table shows how school impact fees compare among 10 counties.
Sure, the cost of living varies from county to county, but the figures below show how arbitrary public officials are in determining the cost of the impact of a new home. Clearly this is a tax that public officials use at their discretion. Could that be because voters have no say?
Benderson adds a local voice
For the past five years, it has been the biggest, but it also has been the quietest. No more.
University Park-based Benderson Development Co. LLC has hired a media relations company, Linda Gross and her Lakewood Ranch-based ADWORKS Communications Inc., to handle press inquiries and releases.
"We did some work with them through University Place through our involvement with (home builder/developer) Pat Neal, one of our longstanding clients," Gross says. "It was a joint venture, and we were there on behalf of Pat. We have just been staying in touch since that point." ADWORKS also did the public relations announcement of the Panacea property purchase in North Port, which was another joint venture of Neal and Benderson.
"They really brought us in because they are so busy," Gross says. "We can help them with their time management responding to questions."
Gross says her company is still formulating recommendations about the future vision for the company based on meetings with the principals and staff of Benderson, but, one major distinction between ADWORKS' presentation of Benderson and the Neal Communities is the focal point of the company message. In general, Gross says, Benderson's media relations will highlight the company's team with far less emphasis on company principals.
"We have been directed to communicate for Benderson Development as a team,'' Gross says. "They are one of the five largest companies in their category, and communicating a message for a corporation that large is somewhat different."
ADWORKS' first announcement for the Benderson was a press release explaining the developer's purchase of about 22 acres of land at the northwest corner of Stickney Point Road and U.S. 41 on Siesta Key.
Don't judge the impact-fee committee just yet
Sarasota County Commissioner Jon Thaxton's advice to the media and others concerning the Florida Impact Fee Review Task Force is don't pre-judge its members. State Senate President Tom Lee recently appointed Thaxton to the ad hoc committee designated to study how impact fees are imposed by local governments. Asked if the commission leans against business/development interests, Thaxton responded that it was unfair at this point to try predetermine the members' future positions.
"To make that assumption based on the person's current position just isn't accurate," Thaxton says. "First you would have to know their entire resume. For example, before becoming a commissioner I was a life-long real estate broker. But I would say in all likelihood that I was appointed to the committee based on my position advocating for Sarasota County's impact fees. I'm going into this with a completely open mind. I would suggest people shouldn't pass judgment so soon."
Thaxton says both impact-fee proponents and detractors will likely see a benefit from the task force's work, which is to clarify the methodology required to set the tax.
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