Thursday, June 17, 1999
CEO sees plenty of room for growth
Booming Evansville economy can spread
BY MIKE BOYER
The Cincinnati Enquirer
George A. Schaefer
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Fifth Third Bancorp's planned $2.4 billion acquisition of Evansville's CNB Bancshares Inc. will have positive economic spinoffs here, Fifth Third's CEO says.
“I cannot be specific yet, but we expect to continue to add local employment here in Cincinnati.
“Already, we're adding another 200,000 to 300,000 square feet (to the company's new service center along Interstate 71 in Madisonville),” said George A. Schaefer Jr., in an interview Wednesday with The Enquirer.
The bank already has packed its downtown Fifth Third tower and occupies two floors of the Commerce Center Building, he said.
Companywide, Mr. Schaefer said, Fifth Third has about 8,500 employees. Of those, about 4,000 work in Greater Cincinnati. The company's biggest local problem: finding workers.
“We've been trying to hire 461 people, and we just cannot find anyone,” he said.
Evansville, about four hours west of Cincinnati on the Ohio River, has a number of business links with the Tristate.
For example, Mr. Schaefer said, Toyota Motor Manufacturing, whose North American headquarters is in Erlanger, just opened its new truck assembly plant in nearby Princeton, Ind., and Middletown-based AK Steel, a Fifth Third client, is operating its new high-tech steel finishing plant in Rockport, Ind.
“The economy in Evansville is just booming,” he said. “That whole part of Indiana is a super market. I see a tremendous upside to this deal.
“We've been around for 141 years and sit right on the Indiana border,” he said.
Mr. Schaefer said Fifth Third expects to capitalize on recent merger mania, which has created a lot of confusion in the Indiana banking market.
Both banks were unsuccessful bidders for about a dozen Bank One offices the Chicago holding company was required to sell because of acquisitions in Indiana.
That led Fifth Third and CNB executives to begin merger discussions several months ago that culminated in Wednesday's announcement, he said.
When the CNB deal is completed by year's end, Fifth Third will be the third largest bank in the Ohio-Kentucky-Indiana region with 9 percent of the deposits.
It will trail Bank One Corp., which has just more than 11 percent, and Cleveland's National City Corp., with just under 11 percent.
The CNB deal will give Fifth Third 635 offices in the region with $23.5 billion in deposits.
But Mr. Schaefer said he's determined to expand the bank's regional market share.
“I want to grow more in our own backyard,” he said, adding that he sees an opportunity to double Fifth Third's business in Cleveland and Louisville.
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