Bear State Financial Acquires SW Missouri Bank for $70M
by July 6, 2015 12:00 am 116 views
Publicly traded Bear State Financial Inc. of Little Rock, parent company of Harrison-based Bear State Bank, has agreed to purchase Metropolitan National Bank of Springfield, Missouri, consisting of 12 offices in nine cities throughout the southwest part of the state.
Bear State will acquire all stock of MNB and shareholders of its holding company, Marshfield Investment Co. Employee Stock Ownership Plan and Trust, will receive approximately $70 million in proceeds, in a split of $42 million in Bear State common stock and $28 million in cash.
When the acquisition is approved, Bear State would have approximately $2 billion in total assets and 55 branches — 41 in Arkansas, two in southeast Oklahoma and 12 in southwest Missouri. There are three branch locations in Washington County and two in Benton County.
The combined enterprise would also have three loan production offices in Arkansas and one in Missouri.
MNB, established in 1983, had assets of $442.4 million as of March 31, according to the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. That represents a decrease of 6.3 percent since March 2005.
Bear State said MNB CEO Mark McFatridge is expected to join its executive management team and board of directors. McFatridge joined MNB in 2012 after working previously for Springfield-area lenders OakStar Bank and Guaranty Bank.
The merger is expected to close later this year.