ANB Shareholders Hard Hit by Bank’s Closure

Everyone knows a lot of people lost a lot of money in the collapse of ANB Financial NA of Bentonville.

Great Southern Bank of Springfield wrote off nearly $35 million it had in a stock loan to ANB and almost 650 depositors had $39.2 million in uninsured deposits.

But what about the direct shareholders?

According to the company’s annual report filed with the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis, former Chairman and CEO, Dan Dykema, held about 6.78 percent of the bank’s stock and employees of the bank held about 18.03 percent in an employee stock ownership plan. The trustees for the ESOP were Dykema; Debra Jackson, former ANB director and chief operating officer (who had about a 0.07 percent share in the company); and Charles “Sandy” Brannan, former executive committee member (who had about a 0.55 percent share in the company).

Possibly the hardest hit shareholders were the Evans family, the owners of Peterson Farms Inc. of Decatur. Victor Evans, former CEO of Peterson Farms, owned 14.47 percent, and Debra Evans, daughter of Peterson Farms founder Lloyd E. Peterson, owned 14.09 percent. The current CEO of the company, Blake Evans, who is the grandson of Peterson, owned about 1.06 percent.

Peterson Farms was just ranked as the 51st largest company in the state by sister publication, Arkansas Business, with unconfirmed revenue of $128 million.