First Tennessee to buy TrustAtlantic Bank for $80M

Raleigh's TrustAtlantic Bank is being sold to First Tennessee-owned First Horizon National Corp (NYSE: FHN) in a deal worth about $80 million.

The combined bank would be the eleventh largest bank in Raleigh, with five Raleigh branches, two percent of the local market and $467 million in local deposits.

It's a final chapter in a Raleigh story that started in 2006. That's when TrustAtlantic began, when Jim Beck, a former Capital Bank CEO, partnered with local investor Steve Johnson to acquire and recapitalize Millennia Community Bank out of Greenville and create the new entity.

TrustAtlantic Financial and its subsidiary bank, TrustAtlantic, now have $453 million in total assets and $395 million in total deposits, as of Sept. 30. The bank has four full-service banking offices in the Raleigh-Cary metro and one in Greenville. All will operate as First Tennessee branches once the acquisition closes.

"This acquisition provides an important expansion in the state's Research Triangle region, one of the most attractive markets in the Southeast," says Bryan Jordan, First Horizon's chairman and CEO.

Beck, TrustAtlantic CEO, confirms via statement that talks have been happening for "many months" about identifying a strategic partner.

"Being part of First Tennessee will give our bankers vastly expanded capacity and a more sophisticated suite of products to better serve our existing customers and to attract new ones," he says.

A letter to shareholders implies the "systematic process" began nearly a year ago.

"Earlier this year, we refocused the process to identify candidates and, ultimately, to select the partner that best served the interests of our shareholders, customers, employees and the communities in which we operate," the letter reads.

Lauren Ohnesorge covers information technology and entrepreneurship.