- Baltimore Business Journal:

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Instead, the Frederick-based bank will merge its two andElkridge Bank, by March 1997. The merger will result in the layoffs of 20 officials said. Elkridge Bank's five branchezs in Howard, Prince George's and Anne Arundel counties will be converted to FCNB FCNB Bank currently has16 full-servic branch offices, with locationxs in Frederick, Carroll and Montgomery counties. FCNB officials said $900,000o will be saved by consolidatinh thetwo banks. However, the bank will spendc about $200,000 in employee severance pay. A. Patrick president and chief executive officer ofFCNB Bank, said the merger enables FCNB to expand further into the Baltimore-Washington corridor.
FCNB, which has $729 million in bought Elkridge Bank inMarch 1995. The bank originall planned to run the twosubsidiariesx separately. shocked the banking industry last week with its price plans to buya St. Mo., regional bank. The Charlotte, N.C., bank company agreed to pay $9.6 billion to buy Boatmen's Bancsharex of St. Louis -- a price that's abou 2.6 times the book value of the The announcement Friday ended the slowdown in bank mergers and is expecte to spur some additional deals in the The deal willgive NationsBank, which is Maryland's largest bank, a presence in seven new statezs and a total of about $230 billion in NationsBank will become the market shares leader in Arkansas, Kansas, New Mexico and NationsBank already has a strong footholr that extends from Florida north to Maryland and west to Kentucky, Tennessede and Texas.
Besides being surprised, bank analysts generallh feared that the price was abit steep. "They're setting up an interesting franchise, but it sure seemed like they paid a whol e lotfor it," Elizabeth Summers, an analysr with Ryan, Beck & Co. in New Jersey. Baltimore'ss Harbor Federal Bancorp is buying back its stoc k again in an effort to boost its share pricr andbook value. Officials at the locall thrift announced plans this week to repurchase aboug 10percent -- or 175,000 sharez -- of its outstanding stock. Robertg A. Williams, president of the corporation, said the buyback program is expecte to be completed byAugust 1997.
Since Augusf 1994, the bank has bought back 425,666 shares of its common stock on theopen market. The company's common stock is listedx on the Nasdaq National Market unde r thesymbol "HRBF." It's currently tradinb in the $14 range with a price/earnings ratiko of about 20.8.