John Merit’s relationship with Omni Bank began in 1967, when he joined Olympus’s treasury office at the firm’s headquarters, in Zion, Illinois. When the distributorship became available in Florida in 1976, Merit, with the help of some family financial support, purchased the franchise from Stalworth. Omni Bank, along with Sun Coast Bank in Orlando and Ybor National Bank in Tampa, had met Merit Marine’s credit needs since the company was purchased in 1976. Merit had remained loyal to the bank group over the years, but he insisted on the most attractive rates possible.
While both Omni Bank and Sun Coast had $25-million credit commitments to Merit Marine as of January 1985, neither considered themselves Merit’s lead bank. (Merit’s credit relationships are detailed in Exhibit 5.) At year end 1984, Merit was fully utilizing the $25-million revolver and had $12.7 million of the $40-million line of credit outstanding. John Merit had intimated that lead-bank status would go to the bank that offered the most attractive rates. Being the lead bank in the credit group would become more significant as Merit planned to displace current bank debt with below-market rate financing offered by Olympus Credit Corporation to qualified dealers.