Business
Peoples Bancorp Inc. and Premier Financial Bancorp, Inc. Announce Definitive Merger Agreement
MARIETTA, Ohio, and HUNTINGTON, W.Va., March 29, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Peoples Bancorp Inc. ("Peoples") (NASDAQ: PEBO) and Premier Financial Bancorp, Inc.
About this update from Peoples Bancorp Inc.
[{"type":"text","content":"MARIETTA, Ohio, and HUNTINGTON, W.Va., March 29, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Peoples Bancorp Inc. (\"Peoples\") (NASDAQ: PEBO) and Premier Financial Bancorp, Inc. (\"Premier\") (NASDAQ: PFBI), jointly announced today the signing of a definitive agreement and plan of merger (\"Merger Agreement\") pursuant to which Peoples will acquire, in an all-stock merger, Premier, a bank holding company headquartered in Huntington, West Virginia, and the parent company of Premier Bank, Inc. (\"Premier Bank\") and Citizens Deposit Bank & Trust, Inc. (\"Citizens\"). Under the terms of the Merger Agreement, Premier will merge with and into Peoples (the \"Merger\"), and Premier Bank and Citizens will subsequently merge with and into Peoples' wholly owned subsidiary, Peoples Bank, in a transaction valued at approximately $292.3 million.\nUpon completion of the Merger, the combined company will have approximately $6.7 billion in total assets, $4.6 billion in total loans and $5.5 billion in total deposits with 136 locations in Ohio, West Virginia, Kentucky, Maryland, Virginia and Washington, D.C. \nPremier, through its two community bank subsidiaries, operates 48 branches in thirty-eight communities spanning across five-states, plus Washington D.C. As of December 31, 2020, Premier had, on a consolidated basis, $1.9 billion in total assets, which included $1.2 billion in total net loans, and $1.6 billion in total deposits.\n\"We are excited about our partnership with Premier and the addition of significant scale to enhance our ability to drive future growth and improved profitability. Premier's strong core franchise provides a natural extension of our existing markets, as well as entry into attractive markets within Virginia, Maryland and Washington, D.C.\" said Chuck Sulerzyski, President and Chief Executive Officer of Peoples. \"Over the years, we have successfully expanded our West Virginia and Kentucky footprint. We are proud to have been recognized in 2020 as the number one bank in West Virginia as part of Forbes' annual list of America's Best-In-State Banks and Credit Unions. We also were voted as The Best in the Tri-State by readers of the Herald Dispatch (Huntington, WV). We look forward to welcoming Premier shareholders, employees and customers to become part of our team, and we are ecstatic to offer additional locations to new and existing Peoples...