BOATMEN'S IS SET TO PURCHASE TEXAS BANK

ST. LOUIS Boatmen's Bancshares Inc. has reached an agreement to acquire a bank holding company in Texas with about $800 million in assets.

Boatmen's will exchange .456 shares of its common stock for each share of First Amarillo Bancorporation's about 6.3 million shares outstanding.

Andrew B. Craig III, president and chief executive officer of Boatmen's, said Friday that First Amarillo met Boatmen's Bancshares acquisition criteria.

"It has the leading market share in Amarillo and it's quite profitable, with a return on assets before extraordinary items of nearly 1.7 percent for the first six months of 1993," Craig said.

Don Powell, president and chief executive officer of First Amarillo, said, "We are very pleased to become affiliated with Boatmen's Bancshares, one of the nation's best capitalized banks."

The acquisition is subject to approval by First Amarillo's shareholders and government regulators. Boatmen's said the acquisition is expected to be neutral to Boatmen's 1993 earnings results and to be added in 1994.

Boatmen's, with assets of $24.6 billion, is one of the 30 largest U.S. bank holding companies, operating more than 400 locations in Missouri including Cape Girardeau and Jackson Illinois, Tennessee, Oklahoma, Arkansas, Iowa, New Mexico and Texas.