SunTrust Deal and Loss of Atlanta Headquarters Stun the City -- WSJ
February 11 2019 - 02:02AM
Dow Jones News
By Cameron McWhirter
This article is being republished as part of our daily
reproduction of WSJ.com articles that also appeared in the U.S.
print edition of The Wall Street Journal (February 11, 2019).
ATLANTA -- SunTrust Banks Inc. is so intertwined with the
history and culture of this city that news of its merger with
BB&T Corp. and the loss of its headquarters stunned many
leaders in the business community.
The SunTrust logo can be seen throughout metro Atlanta, most
notably on the Atlanta Braves' SunTrust Park in suburban Cobb
County, which opened in 2017. Sixty-story SunTrust Plaza is a major
presence downtown. Parks, university libraries and streets in the
city are named for families closely associated with the bank,
including the Woodruffs and the Hurts.
The bank's leaders helped finance Coca-Cola Co.'s international
expansion and were instrumental in the building of Emory
University's campus in the Atlanta area. They also played a key
role in working with Civil Rights leaders to ensure that Atlanta,
unlike other southern cities, desegregated relatively peacefully
under the slogan "The City Too Busy to Hate."
"For those of us who grew up here and have a history in Georgia,
you think of SunTrust as one of those iconic brands in Atlanta,"
said Jonathan Hightower, 39, a banking lawyer at Bryan Cave
Leighton Paisner LLP. "It's right up there with Coca Cola."
BB&T said it was buying SunTrust for $28.2 billion,
combining the two regional lending powerhouses to create the
sixth-largest U.S. retail bank. The combined bank, which hasn't
been named yet, will be based in Charlotte, N.C.
Sue Mallino, a SunTrust spokeswoman, declined to say how many
employees worked in metro Atlanta or how many they planned to
eliminate or move with the merger. "We will maintain a significant
presence in Atlanta after the close of the merger," including the
new bank's wholesale-banking center, she said.
William H. Rogers Jr., the chief executive of SunTrust and a
longtime Atlanta civic leader, said in a statement to the Journal
that the new combined company would be committed to increasing
community investment in both Atlanta and Winston-Salem, N.C., where
BB&T is based.
While the move is a hit for the booming region -- now America's
ninth-largest with a population of about 5.9 million -- some
business leaders didn't think it would have a long-term effect on
the city's economy, growth or corporate giving.
Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms said she was "grateful to
Bill Rogers and SunTrust for their investments, which have had
long-lasting impacts on Atlanta's growth and prosperity. While I am
disappointed that the merger will take SunTrust's headquarters out
of Atlanta, I look forward to working with the BB&T team to
ensure their continued success in the city."
Founded in 1891 from several smaller banks, the bank later
changed its name to the Trust Company of Georgia, a name it kept
for decades. In 1985, the bank merged with Orlando-based Sun Banks
Inc. to become SunTrust, based in Atlanta.
P. Russell Hardin, president of the Robert W. Woodruff
Foundation, called the BB&T merger a body blow. "It's very hard
to imagine that our hometown bank will be headquartered elsewhere,"
he said.
Mr. Hardin, a longtime friend of SunTrust's Mr. Rogers, said he
spoke with him after the merger announcement. He said Mr. Rogers
told him the new company would continue to strongly support the
Atlanta nonprofit community. Mr. Hardin said he hoped "that they're
going to spend the next 20 years trying to prove how much they
still love Atlanta."
In a joint statement, the two banks said the combined company is
committed "to increase the respective banks' current levels of
community investment."
Near the bank's headquarters Thursday, taxi driver Negassi Tekie
waited for a fare. He said the downtown cabbies get many customers
from SunTrust Plaza, often bank employees or business people
visiting bank offices.
"Always our eyes were on that building," he said. "It's no good
for us and it's no good for the city also."
Write to Cameron McWhirter at cameron.mcwhirter@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
February 11, 2019 02:47 ET (07:47 GMT)
Copyright (c) 2019 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
SunTrust Banks (NYSE:STI)
Historical Stock Chart
From Feb 2024 to Mar 2024
SunTrust Banks (NYSE:STI)
Historical Stock Chart
From Mar 2023 to Mar 2024