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First Union Extends Business Advisory Expertise with the Addition of the Mid-Atlantic Companies, LTD CHARLOTTE - Continuing to expand its expertise in the area of financial consulting, First Union Corporation has acquired certain assets of privately held The Mid-Atlantic Companies, Ltd. to form a new unit, First Business Advisors, within First Union's Capital Management Group. Since December 1997, the two companies have worked together in a non-exclusive joint marketing arrangement. First Business Advisors will continue Mid-Atlantic's consulting services to businesses, with a primary focus on "keep vs. sell" strategies for family owned businesses. It also provides large, closely held and small publicly held corporations with expertise in the areas of corporate development, business planning and compensation and benefits analysis. The new unit will be co-managed by Ted Beringer, former CEO of Mid-Atlantic, and by Diane L. Stanford, senior vice president and manager of First Union's Financial Advisory Services unit. First Business Advisors will be a part of Stanford's unit within the Capital Management Group. Stanford cited studies indicating that a change in ownership will occur among nearly half of the nation's privately owned businesses during the next five years. "Some of these business owners will be faced with awesome decisions concerning the future of their companies, and some of them will be unaware of their options," Stanford said. "The creation of First Business Advisors allows us to provide in-house expertise in consulting services to closely held or family owned businesses. It is a natural next step for our clients," said Don McMullen, executive vice president and head of First Union's Capital Management Group. Clients can access the expertise of First Business Advisors through their First Union relationship managers. "This transaction makes a lot of sense for both companies," Beringer said. "Mid-Atlantic's focus has been on providing advisory and consulting services. First Union's broader client base and its expertise in the areas of trust, investments and capital markets complement our expertise in providing advisory services." First Union's Financial Advisory Services group includes all fee-based consulting practices, including affluent financial planning provided through Personal Financial Consulting, personal estate strategies provided through Personal Trust, and strategic business planning provided through First Business Advisors. Stanford joined First Union to head that group in January. Before that, she was a senior vice president with KeyCorp, where her 12-year career included national and regional sales management for Key Private Bank, trust executive for the Indianapolis Bank, regional trust sales management for Southern Ohio, and institutional trust sales representative. Her financial experience also includes commercial lending and cash management. Stanford is a graduate of Miami University of Ohio, and she attended Xavier University for post-graduate work in business administration. First Union's Capital Management Group includes the corporation's investment and asset management services. These include Women's Financial Advisory Services; Corporate and Institutional Trust; the Evergreen Funds, one of the nation's fastest-growing mutual fund families; Financial Planning; First Capital Group; First Investment Advisors; First Union Institutional Debt Management, Inc., First Union Insurance Group; Pension Services; Personal Trust; Private Client Group; Retail Investment Group including IRA and CAP, the nation's first bank-based asset management account; and Retail Services Group, including First Union Brokerage Services, Inc., Wheat First Union and WFS Clearing Corp. First Union Corporation (NYSE:FTU) is a leading provider of financial services to more than 16 million retail and corporate customers throughout the East Coast and the nation. First Union is the nation's sixth largest bank holding company, based on assets of $234.6 billion as of Sept. 30, 1998, and ranks among the top 15 financial services companies in the world, based on market capitalization. The company operates full service banking offices in Connecticut, Delaware, Florida, Georgia, Maryland, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, Tennessee, Virginia and Washington, D.C. --END-- |
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