FOR RELEASE ON
JANUARY 31, 2002
FIRST NATIONAL OF NEBRASKA, INC. OMAHA, NEBRASKA | CASTLE BANCGROUP, INC. DEKALB, ILLINOIS | |||
CONTACTS: | Bruce R. Lauritzen Chairman of the Board (402) 341-0500 | John W. Castle Chairman of the Board (815) 754-8031 | ||
Daniel K. O'Neill Senior Vice President (402) 341-2535 | Dewey R. Yaeger President and CEO (815) 754-8032 | |||
TRADED: | OTC Bulletin Board | OTC Bulletin Board | ||
SYMBOL: | FINN | CTBG | ||
FIRST NATIONAL OF NEBRASKA, INC.
AND CASTLE BANCGROUP, INC.
ANNOUNCE CLOSING OF MERGER
Omaha, Nebraska, and DeKalb, Illinois, January 31, 2002. First National of Nebraska, Inc. ("First National"), and Castle BancGroup, Inc. ("Castle"), jointly announce the acquisition of Castle by First National. Under the terms of the merger agreement, Castle stockholders at January 31 will receive $18.00 in cash for each outstanding share of Castle common stock, indicating total consideration of approximately $81.7 million. First National funded the acquisition primarily through its commercial credit facilities.
Castle is the parent company for Castle Bank, N.A., which serves customers through 10 banking offices in North Central Illinois. At September 30, 2001 Castle had total assets of $583 million, total deposits of $511 million, and stockholders' equity of $49 million.
First National is the parent company for ten independently operated community banks and a mortgage company serving customers in Nebraska, Colorado, Kansas, South Dakota, Arizona, and Texas. First National is also a leading company nationally in bank credit card issuance, merchant processing, and automated clearinghouse processing. At September 30, 2001 First National had total assets of $9.5 billion, total deposits of $7.9 billion, and stockholders' equity of $791 million.
