<p>Fifth Third Bancorp said Thursday it is buying Charlotte, N.C.-based First Charter Corp., expanding its banking presence in the southeast to North Carolina and suburban Atlanta.</p><p>Fifth Third will pay $1.09 billion with stock and 30 percent cash, the Cincinnati-based company said. The company will pay $31 per share, a 53 percent premium to First Charter's closing price of $20.25 on Wednesday.</p><p>Fifth Third in May announced a $288 million acquisition of R-G Crown Bank, based in Casselberry, Fla. That will add 30 branches to Fifth Third's Florida operations and three in Augusta, Ga.</p><p>The First Charter acquisition will give Fifth Third 57 retail locations and 134 automatic teller machines in North Carolina, as well as five retail locations and six ATMs in Georgia, including First Charter's two suburban Atlanta branches.</p><p>Fifth Third said the deal will add about $4.9 billion in assets and $3.2 billion in deposits to the company. In the Charlotte area, it now will have $2.2 billion in deposits</p><p>First Charter will become a Fifth Third affiliate, and Bob James, president and chief executive of First Charter, will be president of the Charlotte-based affiliate.</p><p>"Given that First Charter represents a new market for Fifth Third, we do not expect consolidation activity," Kevin Kabat, Fifth Third president and chief executive, said in a statement. "We have long had our eye on the Carolinas, and Charlotte is a terrific new market for us."</p><p>He said Fifth Third expects to continue to expand in Georgia and North Carolina.</p><p>The transaction is expected to close in the first quarter of 2008, and will dilute 2008 earnings per share by about 2 percent, Fifth Third said.</p><p>Fifth Third, a financial services company, operates 18 affiliates with 1,171 full-service banks, along with ATMs and locations inside some grocery stores, in Ohio, Kentucky, Indiana, Michigan, Illinois, Florida, Tennessee, West Virginia, Pennsylvania and Missouri.</p>
