Park Sterling Bank

[HopHead]

Not sure if anyone here has noticed, but there's been a lot of talk locally about the Park Sterling bank and it's aggressive expansion plans. They are looking to quadruple their size in assets in one year (which would be $1 billion) and are looking to be at least a $10 billion bank by 2015. This will all be possible through their initial public stock offering which will be between $9-$11/share. Their plans will focus on using the old Wachovia (pre-First Union) model. Mostly organic growth and acquisitions of healthy community banks. They will primarily be focused on the Carolinas and Virginia. A lot of old Wachovia names like Bud Baker and Jim Cherry are already on board with the bank at the executive level. I talked to a buddy of mine that works for a local bond broker and does a fair amount of business with these guys already. He seems to think this bank has a lot of potential and could eventually become another BB&T. Regardless, this bank could be a source of a lot of Charlotte jobs in the next few years.

Park Sterling’s expansion plans have a familiar look

[krazeeboi]

Seems to be a lot of banks based or with a presence in the Carolinas that have moderate to strong aggressive expansion plans (including Canada-based TD Bank, which is set to acquire Carolina First Bank based in Greenville, SC), so there will definitely be no lack of competition.

[HopHead]

Park Sterling is set to purchase Gastonia-based Citizens South: http://www.bizjourna...h.html?page=all

After the acquisition, Charlotte-based Park Sterling will become a $2.2 Billion bank (the largest community bank in CLT). It will also have over 40 branches in the Charlotte and Wilmington areas, South Carolina and northern Georgia. Additionally, it will also have commercial lending, mortgage and wealth management units.