It's all good news

By Dick Hughes  

JUNE 2, 2011 10:21 a.m. (0)

When Walter Davis needed a role model on how to be successful in business, he had to look no farther than his grandfather.

In the days of segregation, Leroy Davis had one of the black-owned grocery stores in Greenville.

He owned a service station and a cemetery, too.

“He taught me a lot about business and about people,” Walter Davis, whose middle name is Leroy after his grandfather, said. “Those are lessons I’ve used to this very day.”

Davis, a graduate of J.L. Mann High, is putting those lessons to work as one of four former Bank of America and Wachovia Bank executives who started CertusBank.

CertusBank is a subsidiary of Blue Ridge Holdings Co. of Charlotte, which was formed early last year by Davis and three other former Bank of America and Wachovia executives to raise money to buy failing community banks in the Carolinas, Georgia and northern Florida.

The office of Comptroller of the Currency approved a “shelf charter” for Blue Ridge in November, one of only nine ever granted.

CertusBank, which took over Easley-based CommunitySouth in January, now has 32 branches, including one each in Spartanburg, Mauldin, Greer and on Woodruff Road in Greenville.

The bank’s latest acquisition came two weeks ago when it bought two Georgia banks, Macon-based Atlantic Southern Bank and Franklin-based First Georgia Banking Co.

The acquisitions came less than a week before CertusBank announced that it would establish its corporate headquarters in Greenville. It will be located in One, the Bob Hughes’ development to be built on Main and Washington streets in downtown.

Davis, a vice chairman for CertusBank, said the bank will succeed where others have failed because of its executive team. Other members of the executive team are Milton Jones, chairman, CEO and president; Charles Williams, vice chairman, and Angela Webb, senior executive vice president. All have more than 20 years experience in banking.

“We were able to raise $500 million because investors believe in us and our experience,” Davis said.

Davis said all four executives have equal say in decisions. “There’s no one individual who has the authority to usurp any decision the team makes,” he said. “That’s unique.”

And, he said, the bank will not rely as heavily on commercial real estate as the failed banks did. Instead, he said, most of its business will focus on consumer, small business and small industry.

“We want to have the feel of a community bank but the ability to offer the products of a larger bank,” Webb said.

Webb said the bank expects to acquire more failed and nearly failed banks by the end of the year. Not all, she said, will come from the FDIC.

“It’s important to look for banks with the right geographic location that has future growth in the economy and where customer service levels are high. Customer service is our hallmark,” she said.

The bank has plans to go public, perhaps by early next year, Davis said.

Davis said the bank could have established its headquarters in Charlotte or Atlanta, the banking centers in the southeast. Both cities wanted the bank to be based there, Webb said.

CertusBank chose Greenville instead because of its location and growth potential, Davis said.

“The I-85 corridor is strong and Greenville sits in the middle between Charlotte and Atlanta. We think Greenville has the right type of business climate,” Davis said. “Being a part of a growth market where we truly matter is extremely important to us.”

CertusBank’s two-year goal is to have $5 billion to $6 billion in assets. The bank now has $1.8 billion.

“We’re in the financial position to be an acquirer,” Webb said. There have been a number of banks CertusBank looked at but decided not to buy, she said.

“We’re not buying banks just to buy banks,” she said.

Webb said the bank is happy it has chosen Greenville for its headquarters.

“There was something special about Greenville and South Carolina,” she said. “Everybody has been so welcoming. It is important to us. We want to be a part of the community and we want to be committed to the community. And we are committed to Greenville.”

CertusBank employees have already joined boards and civic groups in Greenville and have given to worthy causes such as the Urban League, she said.

Certus means certain in Latin, Webb said.

And the executive team wants to bring certainty back to banking, she said. “We want to bring financial certainty to our customers and certainty back in banking in general,” she said. “We want to bring confidence bank to banking again.”

CertusBank’s decision to locate in Greenville means a homecoming for Davis, who spent his first six years in banking in Greenville.

Davis, who majored in psychology and minored in biology at the University of South Carolina, said he had thoughts of going to medical school to become a physician. But state Sen. Verne Smith, whom he worked as a page for three years while going to school, talked him into becoming a businessman.

“He thought I had an entrepreneurial spirit,” Davis said.

Just like his grandfather.