Peoples Bancorp To Acquire NB&T Financial Group

(RTTNews) - Peoples Bancorp Inc. (PEBO), parent company of Peoples Bank, N.A., said Monday that it has agreed to acquire NB&T Financial Group, Inc. (NBTF), the parent company of Wilmington, Ohio-based The National Bank and Trust Co., through a stock and cash merger.

Under the deal, shareholders of NBTF will receive 0.9319 shares of Peoples common stock and $7.75 in cash for each share of NBTF common stock. Based upon the volume weighted average closing price of Peoples' common stock for the twenty trading days ending August 1, the deal is valued at $31.00 per share or about $109 million in aggregate, including payment in cash for outstanding options.

Founded in 1859, NB&T operates 22 branches in southwest Ohio. As of June 30, 2014, NB&T had about $652 million in total assets, which included about $387 million in net loans, and about $561 million in total deposits. NB&T also had about $263 million in trust assets under management.

The deal, which is expected to be completed late in the fourth quarter of 2014 or the first quarter of 2015, is projected to be immediately accretive to Peoples' earnings per share, with a tangible book value dilution payback period of about 5 years.

Peoples also announced the hiring of banking veteran Ed Reilly to lead the acquired branches as Executive Vice President and Regional President for the market.