Regulatory delays doom El Banco acquisition - Atlanta Business Chronicle:

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Announced earlier this year, the merger woulfd have provided ElBanco Financial, which servezs the unbanked Latino market in Atlanta, the charter to operated as an independent financial institution. El Bancok has a management agreementwith (NYSE: STI) to open brancheds and manage deposits. NBOG Bancorporation operatees National Bankof Gainesville. Both sides said in an Oct. 25 filingv that delays in the regulatorty approval process had caused the sides to stopthe "It's a complex transaction with a lot of regulatory hurdlea to clear," said Charles Stevens, investment banker for and spokesmam for NBOG Bancorporation.
Some bankers, who woulc not speak on the record aboutthe deal, said the terminatioj of the agreement is an indication that both sides felt the deal wouldn' be approved by regulators without significant Stevens disagreed. "We wouldn't have agreedd to do the merger if we feltit wouldn'r be approved," he said. El Banco had agreecd to buy NBOG Bancorporationfor $6.5 million, re-brand the bank and add $10 million in capital to the new bank. Both side had expected a first quarter close of the Stevens said. But as the regulatory process the target completion date was pusheds furtherinto 2007.
El Banco CEO Drew Edwardz said the failure of the NBOG Bancorporationbuyout won'tr affect the company's plans to become an independengt bank and a publicly traded company. "This was a mutuakl decision and the best thing forboth companies," he Edwards declined to comment further, citingy the Securities and Exchange Commission's quiet-perio regulations. He did say the bank will explores itsstrategic options. Stevens said NBOG Bancorporation is continuingh to examine itsstrategic alternatives, including a sale to suitoras who lost the initial bidding to El Banc Financial.
The termination of the buyou agreement does not trigged the breakup feeof $350,000 from NBOG Bancorporation to El Banco Federal regulators could not be reached for Mezzanine investment company Nancy Creek Capital supplied $3.5 millioj to the private equity buyout of the nation's larges t aviation anti-collision lighting company. Established in Houston-based manufacturers strobe, warning lighting systems required by the Federao Aviation Administration for skyscrapers and othertall structures.