SunTrust
Banks - (en)
The earliest predecessor institution, Farmers Bank of Alexandria,
Virginia, was founded in 1811. The most direct corporate parent, the
Trust Company of Georgia, was founded in 1891 as the Commercial
Travelers' Savings Bank. Two years later, it restructured as a Trust
company and renamed itself Trust Company of Georgia. The current
SunTrust Banks, Inc was the result of a merger between the Trust
Company of Georgia and SunBanks, Inc. of Florida in 1985. Branches of
the bank adopted the name of the parent entity in 1995.
Acquisitions
In 1986, shortly after the Trust Company-SunBanks merger, SunTrust
purchased Third National Corporation of Tennessee. It purchased
Crestar Financial of Virginia in 1998. In 2001, SunTrust launched a
hostile takeover bid for Wachovia, after Wachovia announced its
intention to merge with First Union. This attempt was unsuccessful.
(See the Wachovia article for more information.)
The company bought Memphis based National Commerce Financial
Corporation (NCF) for $7 billion in 2004. This acquisition gave
SunTrust branches and assets in Tennessee, Arkansas, Mississippi,
North Carolina, South Carolina and West Virginia.
SunTrust is frequently the target of rumors that it will be acquired
by a larger bank.
Relationship with Coca-Cola
SunTrust has a long-standing relationship with the Coca-Cola Company.
The Trust Company of Georgia helped underwrite the initial public
offering of The Coca-Cola Company in 1919. As a result, the bank
received some of Coke's publicly traded stock, and SunTrust retains
48.3 million shares (3.58%) of Coke as of 2006. This stake, which has
a GAAP cost of $110,000, is today worth approximately $2 billion and
pays $59 million a year in dividends. In addition, the original copy
of the formula for Coca-Cola is stored in the main vault at the bank's
headquarters in Atlanta.
Ernest Woodruff, president of the Trust Company from 1904 to 1922, was
the father of Robert W. Woodruff, Coca-Cola's president from 1923 to
1954 and board member until 1984. As of 2006, two Coca-Cola executives
sit on SunTrust's board and a former SunTrust CEO sits on Coca-Cola's
board.
