Pine Bluff, Ark.-based Simmons First National Corp. (Nasdaq: SFNC) is expanding its southwest Missouri presence with the purchase of Springfield-based Liberty Bancshares Inc.
The companies announced a definitive agreement today. The all-stock transaction is valued at approximately $206.9 million and is expected to close in the fourth quarter, pending shareholder and regulatory approvals, according to a news release.
The top U.S. Small Business Administration lender in Missouri in 2012 and 2013, Liberty Bank holds assets of $1.1 billion, loans of $811 million and deposits of $885 million. In the Springfield metropolitan statistical area, Liberty ranked fifth in deposit market share as of June 30, with approximately 6 percent of the market, according to the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp.’s Deposit Market Share Report
released last fall.
"Liberty’s expertise in small-business lending will enhance our commercial offerings throughout our geographies and will further establish Simmons as a premier community banking organization," Simmons First Chairman and CEO George Makris Jr. said in the release.
Simmons First entered the local market in
May 2010 after purchasing 14-year-old Southwest Community Bank's $96.6 million in assets a day after the Missouri Division of Finance closed the Springfield bank, which had a significant troubled asset ratio. Simmons Bank operates its only Springfield branch at 3333 E. Battlefield Road.
The Liberty deal represents the fourth acquisition agreement penned by Simmons First since November. In late 2013, Simmons First completed the acquisition of Little Rock-based Metropolitan National Bank (separate from the Springfield bank of the same name); agreed to buy Little Rock-based Delta Trust & Banking Corp. in March; and earlier this month, signed a deal to acquire Union, Tenn.-based Community First Bancshares Inc., according to
Springfield Business Journal archives.
Liberty Bank, which opened in 1995, operates over 20 branches in southwest Missouri, according to its website. Simmons First operates over 100 in Arkansas, Missouri and Kansas, and holds some $4.4 billion in assets, the release said.
SFNC shares were trading at $40.88 as of 9:05 a.m., compared to a 52-week range of $24.06 to $42.[[In-content Ad]]
