Brand Group Holdings Inc. in Lawrenceville, Ga., said Wednesday that it had raised $200 million in capital through a number of well-known private-equity groups.
This is the first time since the bank was founded more than a century ago that it has ownership outside of the Brand family and a small group of local investors.
The three lead investors for the recent infusion are Carlyle Group, Stephens Group LLC and Nonami Investments LLC.
The capitalization also included management and board changes. John E. McKinley, a former principal operating officer of BankSouth Corp., will become the executive chairman of Brand Group and its bank.
Bartow Morgan Jr. will remain the chief executive of both the company and the bank. His great-great-grandfather, E.M. Brand, founded the bank in 1905.
Morgan and his father will remain on the board, whose seven other directors include Michael Coles, a former chairman, president and chief executive of Caribou Coffee Co., and Pat Flinn, a former chairman and chief executive of BankSouth.
Each of the three lead investors will add a director.
When the plan was unveiled in November, observers pegged it as the biggest private-equity-backed traditional capital raise of an existing Georgia bank that did not involve a shelf charter or failed bank in the last few years.
Initially, $125 million was injected into Brand Group, and there are agreements with the investor to add $75 million at a later date.
Brand Group now has a total risk-based capital ratio of more than 24%.
The company said it will infuse most of the capital into its $1.3 billion-asset bank to expand lending, including commercial and industrial loans and programs offered by the Small Business Administration.
