THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Friday, August 19, 1994 TAG: 9408190571
SECTION: BUSINESS PAGE: D1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: By TOM SHEAN, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: Medium: 57 lines
Central Fidelity Banks Inc., the third-largest bank holding company based in Virginia, said its longtime chairman and co-chief executive officer, Carroll L. Saine, died Thursday.
Central Fidelity, based in Richmond, said Saine, 59, had died of natural causes. It did not elaborate.
Lewis N. Miller Jr., the company's president and co-chief executive, will oversee Central Fidelity, a spokeswoman said. Central Fidelity created its office of co-CEO last year and named Miller to the post.
News of Saine's death triggered unusually heavy trading in Central Fidelity's stock and speculation that the company's top management might become more amenable to merging with a larger institution.
Saine had been hospitalized in February for treat
ment of a cancerous tumor near his lungs. In early March, the company said he had responded well to treatment and had returned to work.
Saine had served as Central Fidelity's CEO since 1981 and as chairman since 1982.
Under his direction, Central Fidelity chose a different expansion strategy than its rival banking companies in the state. Instead of acquiring banks in neighboring states, Central Fidelity concentrated on growth within Virginia.
In presentations to securities analysts and shareholders, Saine said Central Fidelity expected to remain independent. And in 1989, the company's board installed a ``shareholder rights'' plan that would make an unsolicited takeover difficult to accomplish.
However, the price of Central Fidelity's shares jumped Thursday amid speculation that the company might eventually be acquired. Central Fidelity's shares closed at a 52-week high of $34.25, up $2.50 for the day, in trading on NASDAQ's National Market System.
More than 511,000 shares changed hands Thursday.
``This is a stock that typically trades 50,000 to 60,000 shares a day,'' so the activity was due largely to speculation of an eventual sale, said David West, a banking analyst with the Richmond-based securities firm Davenport & Co. of Virginia.
State legislation that did away with limitations on interstate bank mergers on July 1 has heightened investors' expectations of additional bank acquisitions in Virginia. However, ``in the short term, the company is very likely to remain on the same course'' that Saine had set, West predicted.
Central Fidelity, formed in 1978 from the merger of the Virginia bank holding companies Central National Corp. and Fidelity American Bankshares Inc., had $9.73 billion of assets at the end of June and 230 bank branches in the state. ILLUSTRATION: Color photo
Carroll Saine, chairman and co-CEO, died of natural causes.
by CNB