C&S; Set to Battle NCNB Takeover

ATLANTA —  Two Southeastern banking giants are girding for a long battle as North Carolina-based NCNB Corp. stands by its $2.4-billion hostile takeover bid for Georgia-based Citizens & Southern Corp.

Citizens, a $21-billion bank holding company based in Atlanta, has rejected the NCNB bid and invoked Georgia’s anti-takeover law. It has also hired an array of legal experts and financial advisers.

However, Charlotte, N.C.-based NCNB, the $50-billion banking behemoth of the growing Southeast region, has reiterated its intention to carry out a deal that would be among the biggest mergers in American banking history and create the nation’s sixth largest bank.

NCNB operates in seven Southern states and manages assets of more than $50 billion. Its own assets totaled $29.85 billion at the end of 1988, but it also manages $25.6 billion in assets that belonged to Dallas-based First RepublicBank, of which it bought a 20% interest last summer and renamed NCNB Texas.

Citizens’ spokesman Scott Screedon, said Georgia regulators would likely oppose the proposed takeover “because of the possibility that Georgia assets may be expected to be shifted to Texas” to help NCNB fulfill its commitment to revive First RepublicBank.