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IRVING - Roy J. Salley is returning to banking with what could be the second-largest bank ever started in the Metroplex.
Sovereign Bancshares Inc. will open three branches in the next nine months with $30 million to $35 million in capital raised from more than 250 shareholders, said Salley, who was CEO for Colonial Bank in Texas until last fall.
Jim Gardner, senior managing director at Dallas-based investment bank Samco Capital Markets, said Sovereign's initial capitalization would make it the second-largest de novo (or startup) bank in the area after Texas Capital Bancshares Inc., which raised about $80 million in 1998.
Sovereign starts with "an extremely successful track record on the part of (former First Mercantile) management, (who built) a bank from zero to well over $300 million in a relatively short period of time," Gardner said.
"We're trying to get Sovereign as quickly as possible to where First Mercantile was when...