Regions, AmSouth to Merge

Regions Financial Corp., Birmingham, Ala., the parent company of Regions Mortgage, and AmSouth Bancorporation, Birmingham, have announced a merger agreement that they said will create one of the top 10 bank holding companies in the United States.The Regions name will be retained for the combined entity. The agreement provides for a stock-for-stock merger in which 0.7974 shares of Regions will be exchanged for each share of AmSouth common stock. Based on closing stock prices of both companies on May 24, the pro forma combined market capitalization of the new entity would be approximately $26 billion, the companies said. Jackson W. Moore, chairman, president, and chief executive officer of Regions, will be chairman of the combined company. The companies can be found online at http://www.regions.com and http://www.amsouth.com.