Business
Business First Bancshares, Inc. and Pedestal Bancshares, Inc. Announce Merger
BATON ROUGE, La., Jan. 22, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Business First Bancshares, Inc. (“Business First”) (NASDAQ: BFST), the holding company for b1BANK, and
About this update from Business First Bancshares, Inc.
[{"type":"text","content":"BATON ROUGE, La., Jan. 22, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Business First Bancshares, Inc. (“Business First”) (NASDAQ: BFST), the holding company for b1BANK, and Pedestal Bancshares, Inc. (“Pedestal”) today jointly announced the signing of a definitive agreement under which Business First will acquire Pedestal and its wholly owned bank subsidiary, Pedestal Bank. On a pro forma basis as of December 31, 2019, the combined institution would have been the 3rd largest Louisiana-headquartered bank, with total assets of approximately $3.5 billion.\n “This is a transformative, franchise-building opportunity for our company,” said Jude Melville, President and CEO of Business First. “Pedestal Bank has for many years been a well-managed, high performing competitor of ours, and teaming up with them grows our market share, broadens our shareholder base, and strengthens our already deep talent pool. It’s the next step in our quest to be our region’s bank of choice.” As of December 31, 2019, Business First had total assets of $2.3 billion, total loans of $1.7 billion, total deposits of $1.8 billion and total shareholders’ equity of $285.1 million, compared to Pedestal’s estimated $1.2 billion in total assets, $0.9 billion in total loans, $1.0 billion in total deposits and $147.8 million in shareholders’ equity. Pedestal Bank, which was founded in 1999, is headquartered in Houma, Louisiana and operates 22 branches across southern Louisiana. For the fiscal year 2019, Pedestal Bank reported pre-tax earnings of approximately $20.5 million. Following the completion of the transaction, Business First will fix the size of its board of directors at fourteen members, which will be comprised of ten current Business First directors and four current Pedestal directors. In addition, Pedestal Bank’s President and CEO, Mark Folse, will relocate to Baton Rouge to join b1BANK’s executive team. “Over the last 20 years, Pedestal Bank has built its success and reputation on always striving to exceed our customer’s expectations,” said Folse. “We believe this partnership is a positive move that is consistent with our pursuit of enhancing not only the customer experience, but also the communities we serve. Over the years we have built relationships with the leadership team at Business First, and I am confident that our like-minded approach to customer service, employee rel...