First Busey will acquire Banc Ed Corp

Champaign, Ill.-based First Busey Corporation will acquire The Banc Ed Corp, significantly increasing its presence in the St. Louis MSA.

First Busey will pay $304.9 million in a cash and stock deal for the Edwardsville, Ill.-based Banc Ed and its subsidiary TheBANK of Edwardsville.

“Being a strong, local community bank for the communities we serve is important to both Busey and TheBANK,” said Van A. Dukeman, president and CEO of the $7.8 billion First Busey. “Combining our like-minded, 150-year organizations together as one will allow us to build upon and further strengthen our shared beliefs, community focus and commitment to service excellence.”

After the deal closes later this year or early next year, the combined company will have 82 full-service locations, including 62 branches in Illinois, 14 in Missouri, five in Florida and one in Indiana. First Busey will have combined assets of $9.6 billion, $6.4 billion in gross loans, $7.7 billion in deposits and over $8.6 billion in assets under management. Through this transaction, Busey’s deposit share ranking improves to No. 7 from No. 18 in the St. Louis MSA.

Like Busey, TheBANK was founded in 1868 and operates as a privately held, locally owned and operated commercial bank headquartered in Edwardsville. TheBANK currently employs more than 360 people and has 19 branch locations and one loan production office in the St. Louis MSA.

“While Banc Ed was not actively seeking a partnership, when Busey CEO Van Dukeman approached us about a possible business combination we listened on behalf of our employees, customers, communities and shareholders. Our admiration of the Busey team and franchise has only grown as we learned more about them during this process,” said Mark Shashek, chairman of Banc Ed’s board, and R.L. Plummer, cairman of TheBANK’s board, in a statement.

Barack Ferrazzano Kirschbaum & Nagelberg LLP served as legal counsel and FIG Partners served as financial advisor to Busey. Howard & Howard served as legal counsel and Sandler O’Neill + Partners, L.P. served as financial advisor to Banc Ed.