Palmetto Bancshares To Merge Into United Community Banks In $240.5 Mln Deal

(RTTNews) - United Community Banks, Inc. (UCBI), the holding company for United Community Bank, and Palmetto Bancshares, Inc. (PLMT), the holding company for Palmetto Bank, jointly announced Wednesday a merger agreement by which Palmetto will merge with and into United for deal worth $240.5 million. The combination will operate under the brand of United Community Bank and will be immediately accretive to earnings with mid-to-high single digit accretion in 2016 and double-digit accretion in 2017. The merger is expected to accelerate growth in Upstate South Carolina markets.

Palmetto shareholders will receive $19.25 in cash or 0.97 shares of United common stock, or any combination thereof, for each share of Palmetto common stock. The cash and stock elections are subject to proration to ensure that 30% of the outstanding shares of Palmetto common stock will be exchanged for cash and 70% of the outstanding shares of Palmetto common stock will be exchanged for shares of United common stock in the merger.

Based on United's ten-day average closing price of $18.78 per share as of April 21, 2015, the weighted-average price per Palmetto share is $18.53, and the aggregate deal value is approximately $240.5 million.

Palmetto is the third largest banking institution headquartered in South Carolina with total assets of $1.2 billion, loans of $832 million and deposits of $967 million. It has 25 branches in nine counties in Upstate South Carolina.

The merger is expected to close in the fourth quarter of 2015.