VantageSouth in N.C. Reportedly Close to Buying Yadkin Financial

VantageSouth Bancshares (VSB) in Raleigh, N.C., and Yadkin Financial (YDKN) in Elkin, N.C., are reportedly discussing a merger.

An agreement is "more than 90% done," an unnamed source told the Charlotte Business Journal for an online story Wednesday. The article was based on unnamed "sources with knowledge of the talks." VantageSouth did not immediately respond to a request for a comment; a Yadkin representative declined to comment.

If the two banks combined, they would create the fourth-biggest community bank based in North Carolina, with $3.8 billion in assets and 80 branches, the report said.

Yadkin's stock rose more than 2% after the report was published, reaching $16.60 a share early Wednesday afternoon. VantageSouth's stock rose more than 4%, to $5.07 a share.

The $2 billion-asset VantageSouth is majority owned by Piedmont Community Bank Holdings, which was formed in 2009 to buy mid-Atlantic banks. Last year, Piedmont Community merged VantageSouth with Crescent State Bancshares, another bank it owned.

The $1.8 billion-asset Yadkin completed a reverse stock split earlier this year to make its shares more appealing to institutional investors, who are sometimes prohibited from buying low-priced shares.

In August, VantageSouth announced plans to raise about $88 million by selling preferred stock and issuing subordinated debt. It plans to use a portion of the funds to exit the Troubled Asset Relief Program.