Ameris Bancorp To Buy Coastal Bankshares For About $36.7 Mln

(RTTNews) - Ameris Bancorp (ABCB), the parent company of Ameris Bank, said Tuesday that it has agreed to buy Coastal Bankshares, Inc., the parent company of The Coastal Bank, in a deal valued at about $36.7 million.

Under the deal, Coastal shareholders will receive 0.4671 shares of Ameris common stock for each share of Coastal common stock. The deal is valued $10.00 per Coastal share, based on Ameris's average closing stock price of $21.41 for the three days ending March 7.

As of December 31, 2013, Coastal reported assets of $433 million, loans of $295 million, and deposits of $364 million. Upon completion of the deal, the combined company will have about $4.1 billion in assets, $2.8 billion in loans, $3.4 billion in deposits and a branch network of 74 banking locations across four states.

The acquisition, which is expected to close early in the third quarter of 2014, significantly enhances Ameris's current franchise in the greater Savannah marketplace.