BUSINESS MEMO: BOATMEN'S COMPLETES SALE

Boatmen's Bancshares Inc. has completed the purchase of Fourth Financial Corp.

Boatmen's exchanged about 28 million shares of common stock for all the outstanding common shares of Fourth Financial.

The deal was announced late last year. Fourth Financial, with headquarters in Wichita, Kan., has assets of $7.4 billion.

Boatmen's, based in St. Louis, now has assets of $41 billion. It is the largest bank-holding company in Missouri, Kansas, Oklahoma, Arkansas and New Mexico.

Boatmen's becomes one of the 30 largest bank-holding companies in the United States, with more than 650 banks in nine states.

Boatmen's has also announced a definitive agreement to buy First State Bank of Canadian, based in Canadian, Texas. First State has about $39 million in assets and will become part of Boatmen's First National Bank of Amarillo.

The Canadian transaction is expected to be completed during the third quarter.