Another Georgia bank has been gobbled up, but this time it was a willing seller.
Chattanooga, Tenn.-based First Volunteer Corp., the parent of First Volunteer Bank, plans to acquire Ringgold-based Gateway Bancshares, the parent of Gateway Bank & Trust, an attorney for the seller confirmed Friday.
Financial terms were not disclosed. The deal, pending regulatory and shareholder approval, is expected to close in the first quarter of this year.
Gateway Bank & Trust, with $266.6 million in assets and $235.1 million in deposits as of the third quarter of 2011, has branches in the North Georgia cities of Ringgold, Fort Oglethorpe and LaFayette.
“I hope it is a sign that [traditional] deals are going to start coming back,” said Lyn Schroeder, a bank attorney at Bryan Cave in Atlanta who represented Gateway.
It’s the first tie-up of an open bank in Georgia in recent memory and hints at the wave of natural consolidation long expected among Georgia community banks, said Lee Bradley, senior managing director with Community Capital Advisors.
Fridays in Georgia have become almost synonymous with failing banks. The state leads the nation in failures with 74 since mid-2008.
The appeal of failed bank deals, a wobbly economy and questions about the portfolios of banks looking to sell have stymied traditional bank mergers and acquisitions in Georgia.
Traditional deals are expected to rise nationwide as holders of small bank stocks demand more value. Growth prospects for many small banks have dimmed, and regulatory costs have risen since the recession, said Jeffrey Adams, a managing director in Atlanta for the investment banking firm Carson Medlin, which also represented Gateway.
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