The Bank M&A marketplace thawed further in July as seven whole-bank M&A deals were signed in the month. While still below the 20 or more deals seen in a typical month, July’s total was higher than June’s and a hearty bounce off the solitary deal in May.
Based on both broad market conditions as well as on empirical trends that we’re seeing play out on our active engagements, the dearth of deals in 1H 2020 appears to be setting the table for a coming wave of M&A: previously-paused deals are looking to resume while a new wave of both prospective sellers and would-be buyers are emerging in reaction to increasingly challenging industry conditions: margins are compressing, loan growth is slowing, and credit costs may be rising. While we anticipate a surge of dealmaking in the quarters ahead, notably, we do not anticipate this coming M&A wave will necessarily be a buyer’s market, per se. To be sure, we do expect the number of sellers to swell but we also expect an increase in the number of acquirers endeavoring to use acquisitions as a means of gaining greater scale, enhancing profitability, and spurring growth.
Amidst that backdrop, we are hosting a Webinar on September 15th at 3pm EDT on the topic of Strategic M&A: mergers-of-equals and strategic acquisitions as a means of driving scale efficiencies. Olsen Palmer’s Managing Partner Christopher Olsen will moderate a ‘fireside discussion’ with Miller Welborn (Chairman) and Billy Carroll (CEO and President) of SmartFinancial, Inc. (NASDAQ: SMBK), parent company of Knoxville, Tennessee-based SmartBank, a full-service commercial bank founded in 2007 that has $3.3 billion in assets and 35 branches spanning East Tennessee, Alabama, and the Florida Panhandle. One-time competitors at separate banks, Messrs. Welborn and Carroll combined forces in 2015 via a merger-of-equals that created a banking institution with approximately $1 billion in assets. Since merging, they have successfully completed 4 whole-bank acquisitions and 1 branch acquisition.
To register to attend this Webinar, please click here.
Finally, on July 1st, BankFirst Capital Corporation acquired Traders & Farmers Bancshares, Inc. and 22ND State Bank entered into a Purchase & Assumption agreement to acquire 1 branch from Bank OZK; on July 8th, American Bancshares Corp. agreed to be acquired by Citizens Bancorp Investment, Inc.; and on July 31st, Marshall Financial Corporation agreed to be acquired by Holly Springs Bancshares, Inc. Olsen Palmer advised BankFirst, 22ND State Bank, American Bancshares, and Marshall Financial, respectively, in connection with these separate unrelated transactions that highlight our ability to drive optimal results for our clients across market conditions.
Olsen Palmer is the #2 bank M&A advisor nationwide based on the number of whole-bank M&A transactions we have advised on in 2020 year-to-date, according to S&P Global.
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Contact: info@olsenpalmer.com