Southern Bank to acquire Southern Missouri Bank of Marshfield

Poplar Bluff-based Southern Missouri Bancorp Inc. (Nasdaq: SMBC) agreed to acquire Southern Missouri Bancshares Inc. in a deal valued at $15.1 million.

Through the purchase, the Southern Bank holding company will pick up Southern Missouri Bancshares’ two Southern Missouri Bank of Marshfield branches and its $91.6 million in assets and $73.6 million in deposits, according to a news release.

“We are currently already serving some significant relationships in the community,” Southern Missouri Bancorp President and CEO Greg Steffens said in the release. “We have key personnel who are intimately familiar with this part of the Springfield metropolitan statistical area, which has been a key to our company’s growth over recent years, and we believe this acquisition will be very helpful to our continued solid growth in that market.”

The companies expect to close the deal in first-quarter 2018, pending regulatory and shareholder approvals.

When it finalizes the acquisition, Southern Bank will hold $1.8 billion in assets and $1.5 billion in deposits across 43 branches in Missouri — including three in Springfield — Arkansas and Illinois, according to the release.

Last month, Southern Bank reported quarterly net income of $3.7 million, an increase from $3.68 million a year earlier, according to a separate news release.

SMBC shares were trading at $31.25 as of 11:25 a.m., compared with a 52-week range of $23 to $37.