Pine Bluff, Ark.-based Simmons First National Corp. (Nasdaq: SFNC) entered a definitive agreement to buy an Athens, Tenn., banking company in a $77 million cash-and-stock deal.
The holding company of Simmons Bank, which
last year finalized its $206.9 million purchase of Springfield-based Liberty Bancshares Inc., would gain Citizens National Bancorp Inc.’s nine branches in eastern Tennessee, $522 million in assets, $473 million in deposits and $352 million in loans, according to a news release. The bank is unrelated to a Citizens National Bank that previously did business in Missouri.
“As we continue to expand our community banking strategy, it’s important that we find partners who have common goals, experience, culture and reputations as excellent corporate citizens,” Simmons Chairman and CEO George Makris Jr. said in the release.
The acquisition is slated to close in the fourth quarter, pending regulatory and shareholder approvals.
Simmons’ purchase of Liberty Bank boosted the bank to the No. 1 spot on Springfield Business Journal’s list of the area’s largest U.S. Small Business Administration lenders. Between Oct. 1, 2014, and Sept. 30, 2015, Simmons backed 65 SBA loans with a total value of $17.4 million in southwest Missouri, according to SBJ research. Simmons’ southwest Missouri SBA loan volume was down from $34.4 million a year earlier.
In SBJ’s November list of the area’s largest banks, Simmons ranked 5th with local deposits of $404.2 million as of June 30.
In the
third quarter last year, Simmons completed a $20.7 million purchase of Queen City firm Ozark Trust and Investment Corp., the parent company of Trust Company of the Ozarks.
SFNC shares were trading at $46 as of 9:36 a.m., compared to a 52-week range of $38.30 to $58.75.
