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Simmons First to Buy St. Louis Area Bank for $172M

2 min read

Simmons First National Corp. of Pine Bluff, the holding company for Simmons Bank, announced Tuesday a deal to buy Reliance Bancshares Inc. in the St. Louis suburb of Des Peres, Missouri, for approximately $172 million.

Reliance Bancshares is the holding company of Reliance Bank, which has about $1.5 billion in assets and 22 branches. Simmons, which made acquisitions in Tennessee, Texas and Oklahoma in 2017 and 2018, has assets of $16.3 billion and 207 branches in seven states, including three offices in St. Louis and 24 elsewhere in Missouri.

The deal is a combination of cash ($62.7 million) and 4 million shares of Simmons stock worth about $109 million at Tuesday’s closing price of $27.27.

“After taking some time to fully integrate our 2017 acquisitions, we are now pleased to announce the next chapter of Simmons’ M&A story,” Simmons CEO George A. Makris Jr. said in a news release. “Reliance is an impressive banking franchise led by an extremely accomplished and respected financial services executive, Tom Brouster. By adding Reliance Bank’s 20-plus branches to the Simmons Bank footprint, we will substantially enhance our retail presence within the St. Louis market, where we’ve already seen success in our commercial lending efforts.

“Our desire is to be a strong, supportive, full-service financial institution for the people, businesses, and organizations of St. Louis; and I am confident that we have teamed with another great banking partner to achieve that goal. We look forward to officially welcoming Reliance Bank’s customers and associates to the Simmons family.”

Reliance recorded a $12 million profit through the first nine months of 2018. Last year’s net income totaled $3 million, compared to $10.6 million in 2016.
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