ROOSEVELT BANK BYS MANY HOME SAVINGS BRANCHES

Roosevelt Bank of St. Louis announced Friday that it plans to buy all 17 branches of Home Savings of America in eastern Missouri.

Eight of the 17 Home Savings of America branches are situated in Southeast Missouri, including facilities at Cape Girardeau, Sikeston, Dexter, Poplar Bluff, Malden and Portageville. The other nine branches are in the St. Louis metropolitan area.

The branches have about $830 million in customer deposits, with $230 million of that in Southeast Missouri and $600 million in the St. Louis branches.

Roosevelt said it plans to buy only the branches and deposit accounts; it is not buying Savings of America loans.

The purchase of the S&L branches means that Roosevelt, already the largest savings and loan in the St. Louis metropolitan area, will double its size in 1993.

Roosevelt already plans to buy another 17 Missouri branches and $675 million in deposits from First Nationwide Bank. If both sales are completed, Roosevelt will have deposits of about $3.1 billion.

Both purchases must still be approved by the federal office of Thrift Supervision. Roosevelt expects to close the deal on purchase of the First Nationwide branches by June. The Savings of America purchase is expected to close by the end of the year.

Depositors at Savings of America would automatically become depositors of Roosevelt. Deposits at both S&Ls are insured by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. to $100,000.

Roosevelt said it will honor the maturity and interest rates on Savings of America certificates of deposit.

The price of the Savings of America purchase was not announced. Roosevelt earlier this month raised $46 million through the sale of preferred stocks, and a spokesman said that money made the latest purchase possible.

Stanley Bradshaw, Roosevelt's chief executive officer, said the purchase of the 17 branches was, "very economical for us. Savings of America has a good retail banking operation," he said.

Roosevelt, which is publicly held, said it would not have to sell additional stock or raise more capital to complete the sale.

Home Savings is a subsidiary of H.F. Ahmanson and Co. of California, the nation's largest S&L company, with about $50 billion in assets.