Business
BUSINESS FIRST Bancshares, INC. to acquire OAKWOOD BANCSHARES, INC. AND OAKWOOD BANK
b1BANK to Accelerate the Growth of its Dallas Market Presence BATON ROUGE, La., April 25, 2024 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Business First Bancshares, Inc. (NASDAQ:
About this update from Business First Bancshares, Inc.
[{"type":"text","content":"b1BANK to Accelerate the Growth of its Dallas Market Presence\nBATON ROUGE, La., April 25, 2024 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Business First Bancshares, Inc. (NASDAQ: BFST) (“Business First” or the “Company”), the holding company for b1BANK, today announced that it entered into a definitive agreement to acquire Oakwood Bancshares, Inc. and its wholly-owned bank subsidiary, Oakwood Bank (together, Oakwood), in an all-stock transaction for total consideration value of approximately $85.7 million based on the Company’s closing price of $21.57 per share on April 22, 2024. Once completed, it is expected that the acquisition would increase the Company’s consolidated total assets to approximately $7.4 billion, with over $5.6 billion in consolidated total loans. As of December 31, 2023, Oakwood Bank reported total assets of $843 million, total deposits of $732 million and total equity capital of $90.7 million. As a result of the proposed transaction, b1BANK will add four full-service banking centers in Dallas, one full-service banking center in Oakwood, Texas and one full-service banking center in Snyder, Texas. As a result of the proposed transaction, it is anticipated that b1BANK will increase the percentage of Texas loans in its portfolio from 37.1% to 44.4% and the percentage of Texas deposits in its portfolio from 19.3% to 30.6%. Jude Melville, acting chairman, president and chief executive officer of Business First, stated, “Expansion in the Dallas market has been a successful focus of b1BANK for a number of years. We believe the proposed transaction with Oakwood is an effective and efficient way to deepen our customer, employee, and shareholder bases in what is arguably one of America’s strongest markets. Oakwood and b1 share similar community-oriented cultures and values and we look forward to the combination of our respective franchises strengthening our North Texas platform.” Roy J. Salley, chairman and chief executive officer of Oakwood Bank, added, “We are excited about the opportunity to bring Business First and Oakwood together. The transaction will accelerate our ability to grow within the Dallas market and creates an exciting opportunity for our shareholders and employees. The Oakwood board of directors believes Business First is well positioned and has significant upside opportunity through stock price appreciation. The Business ...