BUSINESS MEMO: BANK AGREEMENT COMPLETED

Mercantile Bancorporation, headquartered in St. Louis, announced it has completed the purchase of Firstbank of Illinois Co., a $2.2 billion multi-bank holding company, headquartered at Springfield, Ill., and CBT Corp., a $1 billion multi-bank holding company headquartered in Paducah, Ky.

Mercantile is paying about $697 million in stock for First Bank and $284 million in stock for CBT Corp.

Mercantile Bancorporation operates offices at more than 500 sites throughout Missouri, Iowa, Kansas, Illinois and Arkansas, incuding Cape Girardeau.

Firstbank operates 48 offices in 11 Illinois markets, and CBT Corp. has 18 banks and 24 consumer finance offices in Kentucky.

Six Firstbank branches and seven Mercantile branches will close from the Firstbank merger, but no layoffs are expected.