BANKING F.N.B. Corp. meets in Greenville for annual meeting

The company will be looking to grow with more acquisitions this year.
By CYNTHIA VINARSKY
VINDICATOR BUSINESS WRITER
GREENVILLE, Pa. -- One F.N.B. Corp. official reported shareholders were all smiles when the parent company of First National Bank of Pennsylvania made the symbolic return to its Greenville roots for its annual meeting Wednesday.
The bank holding company, which moved its headquarters back to Hermitage after spinning off its Florida operations into a new company in January, hadn't met in Pennsylvania since 1999. F.N.B. had been based in Naples, Fla. before the spinoff.
Officials decided on the Thiel College meeting site in Greenville because the corporation was founded here as the First National Bank of West Greenville in 1864.
"It was an all good-news meeting," said Steve Gurgovits, F.N.B. president and chief executive after the closed-door shareholder meeting. "They're happy we're back, happy with the dividends, happy that the stock is doing so well."
F.N.B. would not allow a Vindicator reporter and one other Youngstown-area news representative to attend the meeting, citing a long-standing company policy. He said the policy aims to give shareholders the freedom to question company officials without having to compete with questioning from journalists.
Behind the split
Gurgovits said officials were looking to "unlock shareholder value" when they decided to divide the company into two distinct entities by converting the Florida operations into a separate, publicly traded company, First National Bankshares of Florida Inc.
Every F.N.B. shareholder received one, tax-free share in the new company for each F.N.B. share owned. Stocks for both companies trade on the New York Stock Exchange -- the Pennsylvania company under the symbol FNB, and the Florida company under the symbol FLB.
So far, Gurgovits said, shareholders are reaping benefits from the split.
The combined stocks were worth 12 percent more at the end of the first quarter than the F.N.B. shares alone were worth Dec. 31 before the split. Combined dividends were up 25 percent, he said.
Announcing a 23-cent-per-share dividend, payable June 15 to shareholders of record June 1, Gurgovits said F.N.B. has increased its cash dividend every year for 30 consecutive years, one of just 284 companies that have raised dividends yearly for a decade or more.
F.N.B. officials are keeping track of First National Bankshares' performance for now, Gurgovits said, but the companies are completely separate in management and ownership. F.N.B. had to assure there was no overlap to make the FLB shares tax-free for shareholders.
Recent moves
Gurgovits said F.N.B. made two growth-related moves recently. The company announced last week that it will acquire the parent company of First National Bank of Slippery Rock in a stock and cash transaction valued at $78.5 million. With the deal, expected to close in the fourth quarter, F.N.B. will add nine Slippery Rock branches in Butler, Mercer and Lawrence counties.
In March the company's consumer finance subsidiary, Regency Finance, agreed to buy eight consumer finance offices in the Columbus area. The deal will give Regency 56 offices.
Gurgovits said F.N.B.'s growth plan for 2004 is to continue seeking strategic acquisition prospects in the banking, insurance and consumer finance industries, likely located in or near Ohio, Pennsylvania or Tennessee where it has other operations.
F.N.B. stock closed Wednesday at $19.17.
vinarsky@vindy.com