Enterprise to sell KC-area bank

Updated on Thurs., Feb. 7 at 9:45 a.m. 

Enterprise Financial Services Corp. has agreed to sell a bank in the Kansas City area that it had owned for about a year.

First Financial Services Bancshares Inc. of Lawrence, Kan., will pay $6.5 million for Enterprise’s Great American Bank branch in DeSoto, Kan. The price could be reduced if the Bank’s assets or allowance for losses fall below certain levels.

As part of the deal, Enterprise will buy the assets and liabilities of the Great American bank in Claycomo, Mo., before the sale and convert that branch to an Enterprise Bank.

Jerry Mueller, a senior vice president at Enterprise, said the company had acquired nine branches in the Kansas City area over the last year and a half, more than it needed. After the sale and the pending sale of another branch, it will have seven branches in Kansas City.

Enterprise expects to close the Great American sale in the second quarter, resulting in a gain of six to eight cents a share.

Late last year, Enterprise agreed to sell a branch in Liberty, Mo., to Farmers Bank and Trust Co. of Kansas.
That sale is expected to close later this month.