BUSINESS MEMOS: MERCANTILE PLANS MERGER

Mercantile Bancorporation Inc. has announced plans to strengthen its presence in southwestern Illinois through a merger with Regional Bancshares Inc. Regional is a one-bank holding company that operates the Bank of Alton, a $175 million-asset bank in Madison County, Ill., across the Mississippi River from St. Louis.

According to the terms of the merger agreement, Mercantile Bancorporation will purchase Regional Bancshares through a combination of 23.7123 shares of Mercantile stock and $485.76 for each Regional common share. The common stock portion of this transaction will be 600,418 shares, all of which may be repurchased in the open market.

The merger is subject to the approval of Regional's shareholders and regulatory agencies and will be accounted for as a purchase transaction by Mercantile. The repurchase authorization increases the number of shares Mercantile may repurchase up to 6,600,418 under programs approved by the company's Board of Directors, of which 2,848,600 shares have been purchased to date.

Mercantile also announced it has completed its merger with the $94 million asset Peoples State Bank in Topeka, Kan. This transaction was announced Dec. 19 and expands Mercantile's presence in the Topeka market to 11 locations and over $320 million in assets.

Mercantile, an $18 billion multi-bank holding company headquartered in St. Louis, operates banks in Missouri, Iowa, Kansas, Illinois and Arkansas. Mercantile has two additional mergers pending: a merger with the $510 million asset bank Today's Bancorp in northwestern Illinois, and with First Financial Corporation of America, which operates the $85 million asset First National Bank of Salem located in central Missouri. Mercantile's non-banking subsidiaries include companies providing brokerage services, leasing services, asset-based lending, investment advisory services and credit life insurance.