Carter to oversee bank acquisition

Davy Carter, who served as speaker of the House in this year’s legislative session, has been promoted to regional president of Conway-based Centennial Bank and will be in charge of overseeing the acquisition of Liberty Bancshares, Centennial Bank said Tuesday.

Centennial’s parent company, Home BancShares, announced last month that it plans to buy Liberty Bancshares and its subsidiary, Liberty Bank of Arkansas,for $280 million.

The purchase will make Centennial the second-largest bank in the state, with $7.1 billion in assets and more than 90 branches in Arkansas. Only Arvest Bank of Fayetteville is larger, with more than $14 billion in assets.

Carter, 38, will focus on the details of closing the Liberty Bancshares purchase by this fall.

“We have some details to complete the merger, like getting regulatory approval, [Securities and Exchange Commission] approval, shareholder votes, coordinating with Liberty management on hitting our date [to convert information technology systems] and just getting to know the people there,” Carter said.

In January, Carter resigned from Centennial Bank to focus on the legislative session.He was a division president for Centennial in Cabot.

In May, after the session concluded, Carter announced he had ruled out a run for governor and planned to rejoin Centennial Bank as an executive vice president. At the time, he said he had “a great opportunity to work and learn from a guy like Johnny Allison,” who is chair-man of Home BancShares.

Carter rejoined Centennial Bank a few weeks before the purchase of Liberty Bancshares was announced.

“Davy being an Arkansas State graduate and living in Jonesboro for so long, we decided this would be a perfect fit,” said Randy Sims, chief executive officer of Home BancShares and Centennial Bank. “Our structure is that we’re run by regional presidents and then we have market presidents everywhere. And we’re stretched. So we needed another regional president and the timing was meant to be, I guess.”

Carter has no plans to seek political positions in the near future, he said.

“I’m looking forward to working at Home BancShares,” Carter said. “You never know what the future may hold, but I have no plans of doing anything [except banking].”