FNB to Buy Pittsburgh Independent Agency

F.N.B. Corporation (NYSE: FNB) announced in Hermitage, Pa., an agreement to purchase Morrell, Butz & Junker, Inc., an insurance agency based in Pittsburgh that offers property and casualty, life, and health insurance, and group benefits coverage to both commercial and individual clients.

The company will become a part of F.N.B. Corporation’s First National Insurance Agency, Inc. The acquisition doubles the size of F.N.B.’s insurance division and is expected to be accretive in 2005.

“We are extremely pleased to acquire such a thriving agency that is so complementary to our current business,” said Stephen Gurgovits, president and chief executive officer of F.N.B. “This will provide the stable foundation and additional management strength our insurance division needs to grow and prosper.”

Morrell, Butz and Junker, Inc., is owned by James J. Morrell, Randall C. Butz, and Stephen P. Lesser. Founded in 1992, it is an independent insurance agency with revenues of $4 million. It operates offices in Pittsburgh, Delmont, and Johnstown, and serves clients in Allegheny, Westmoreland, Indiana, Butler, Fayette, Somerset, Cambria, Bedford and Blair Counties. The agency’s employees, as well as its owners, will remain with the company.

F.N.B. Corporation has total assets of $4.8 billion. F.N.B.offers banking, wealth management, insurance, and consumer finance services in western Pennsylvania and eastern Ohio, where it owns and operates First National Bank of Pennsylvania, First National Trust Company, First National Investment Services Company, F.N.B. Investment Advisors, Inc., First National Insurance Agency, Inc., and Regency Finance Company. It also operates consumer finance offices in Tennessee.