Business
FINWARD BANCORP AND PEOPLES BANK COMPLETE ACQUISITION OF ROYAL FINANCIAL, INC. AND ROYAL SAVINGS BANK
MUNSTER, Ind., Jan. 31, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Finward Bancorp (Nasdaq: FNWD) (the “Bancorp” or “Finward”), the holding company for Peoples Bank, announced
About this update from Finward Bancorp
[{"type":"text","content":"MUNSTER, Ind., Jan. 31, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Finward Bancorp (Nasdaq: FNWD) (the “Bancorp” or “Finward”), the holding company for Peoples Bank, announced today that it has successfully completed the previously announced acquisition of Royal Financial, Inc. (OTCQX: RYFL) (“Royal Financial”) and its wholly-owned Illinois state chartered savings bank subsidiary, Royal Savings Bank, of Chicago, Illinois, in a stock and cash transaction. Simultaneous with the acquisition of Royal Financial by Finward, Royal Savings Bank merged with and into Peoples Bank. Under the terms of the merger agreement, Royal Financial stockholders who owned 101 or more shares of Royal Financial common stock were permitted to elect to receive either 0.4609 shares of Finward common stock or $20.14 in cash, or a combination of both, for each share of Royal Financial common stock owned, subject to proration and allocation provisions such that 65% of the shares of Royal Financial common stock outstanding immediately prior to the closing of the merger were converted into the right to receive shares of Finward common stock and the remaining 35% of the outstanding Royal Financial shares were converted into the right to receive cash. Stockholders holding less than 101 shares of Royal Financial common stock will have the right to receive fixed consideration of $20.14 in cash and no stock consideration for each share of Royal Financial common stock. As a result of Royal Financial stockholder stock and cash elections and the related allocation and proration provisions of the merger agreement, Finward expects to issue 795,423 shares of its common stock and pay cash consideration of approximately $18.7 million in the Merger, subject to the final accounting being performed by the exchange agent for the merger. Based on the January 28, 2022 closing price of $47.75 per share of Finward common stock, the transaction has an implied valuation of approximately $56.7 million. With the completion of the acquisition, Finward will have approximately $2.2 billion in consolidated assets, $1.4 billion in loans and $1.9 billion in deposits. The acquisition will further expand Peoples Bank’s retail banking network in the Chicagoland market, bringing the total number of full-service Banking Centers to 30. The banks will ultimately operate under the name Peoples Bank, although the curr...