Glacier Bancorp On Buyout Spree, To Acquire State Bank Corp.

In sync with its strategy to expand inorganically, Glacier Bancorp, Inc. (NASDAQ:GBCI) recently inked a deal to acquire Lake Havasu City, AZ- based State Bank Corp., the bank holding company for State Bank of Arizona. The stock-and-cash transaction, expected to close in fourth-quarter 2019 or first-quarter 2020, is valued at $135.3 million.

The deal, approved by board of directors of both banks, is still subject to regulatory consent and other customary closing conditions.

Randy Chesler, president and CEO of Glacier Bancorp noted, “This acquisition is consistent with our history of adding high quality community banks to our proven banking model. Additionally, State Bank Corp.’s low cost relationship based deposits enhances the overall funding profile of our Arizona franchise.”

Deal Details & Benefits

Per the terms of the transaction, State Bank Corp will receive 0.3706 shares of Glacier Bancorp and $1.69 in cash for each State Bank Corp’s share that they hold.

Further, post the deal’s closure, State Bank of Arizona will merge with Glacier Bancorp’s Foothills Bank Division. This is expected to expand Glacier Bancorp’s footprint in Arizona.

Moreover, as of Jun 30, 2019, State Bank of Arizona had total assets of $678.6 million, total loans of $413.6 million and total deposits of $592.0 million. This will likely further strengthen Glacier Bancorp’s balance sheet.

The above-mentioned acquisition is anticipated to be accretive to Glacier Bancorp’s earnings immediately, excluding the one-time transaction charges of nearly $6.7 million, after tax. The bank projects deal to be accretive to earnings by 1.02% and 1.45% for 2020 and 2021, respectively.

Conclusion

Glacier Bancorp has been expanding through acquisitions for the past several years. The aforementioned deal is the company’s 23rd announced acquisition since 2000.

This July, the company acquired Reno, NV-based Heritage Bancorp and its wholly-owned subsidiary, Heritage Bank of Nevada. Earlier in April, the bank completed the acquisition of FNB Bancorp and its wholly-owned subsidiary, The First National Bank of Layton, a community bank based in Layton, UT.

These acquisitions support Glacier Bancorp to further diversify its loan, customer and deposit base. The company’s buyouts are in line with its footprint-expansion initiatives, which will likely keep boosting the bank’s profitability in the days ahead.

Apart from Glacier Bancorp, there are many other financial firms that are expanding through acquisitions to counter the challenging operating backdrop and improve revenue mix. Some of these are LPL Financial Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ:LPLA) , Stifel Financial Corporation (NYSE:SF) and Valley National Bancorp (NASDAQ:VLY) .

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