{"id":175270,"date":"2023-05-01T09:17:46","date_gmt":"2023-05-01T16:17:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/inbusinessphx.com\/?p=175270"},"modified":"2023-05-01T09:17:46","modified_gmt":"2023-05-01T16:17:46","slug":"banks-combine-to-create-the-largest-community-bank-headquartered-in-arizona","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/staging.inbusinessphx.com\/?p=175270","title":{"rendered":"Banks Combine to Create the Largest Community Bank Headquartered in Arizona"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Bancorp 34, Inc., the holding company of Bank 34<\/a>, and CBOA Financial, Inc., the holding company of Commerce Bank of Arizona, today jointly announced the signing of a definitive merger agreement to combine and form the second largest bank headquartered in Arizona.<\/p>\n

Under the terms of the definitive merger agreement, Commerce shareholders will receive 0.24 shares of BCTF common stock for each share of Commerce common stock they own. Based on BCTF\u2019s stock price of $11.25 as of market close on April 26, 2023, the price per share for Commerce shareholders would be $2.70, or approximately $28 million in aggregate deal value. The value of the per share consideration received by Commerce shareholders will rise and fall based on the value of BCTF shares.\u00a0 BCTF shareholders will own approximately 65%, and Commerce shareholders will own approximately 35%, of the pro forma company.<\/p>\n

Jim Crotty, CEO of BCTF, said, \u201cThis is an exciting combination that will accelerate both companies\u2019 strategic goals by enhancing our ability to serve our customers. Higher lending limits will allow us to tap new opportunities and grow stronger relationships with our existing customers, while increased scale will allow us to more efficiently meet the needs of all our stakeholders. I am excited to partner with the Commerce team and believe we will do great things together.\u201d<\/p>\n

Chris Webster, CEO of Commerce, said, \u201cThis unique strategic merger is the culmination of months and months of collaboration and consideration with BCTF\u2019s fantastic team. The opportunity to combine the strengths of both management groups while capitalizing on conditions in some of the most exciting markets in the country is very compelling. Together this company will be positioned to fill a prominent role in the southwest banking landscape and we couldn\u2019t be more excited to get started.\u201d<\/p>\n

Following closing, the combined company\u2019s Board of Directors will be reduced to eight members, five from the existing BCTF Board (including Jim Crotty) and three from Commerce\u2019s current Board (including Chris Webster).\u00a0 All three members of the Commerce executive management team will join the pro forma management team.\u00a0 Jim Crotty will serve as the CEO of the pro forma company, while Chris Webster will serve as the President, Paul Tees as the Chief Credit Officer and Evan Anderson as the Chief Information Officer and Chief Risk Officer.\u00a0 Additionally, the other members of BCTF\u2019s senior management team are expected to remain in their current roles.<\/p>\n

The merger is expected to close in the fourth quarter of 2023, subject to the satisfaction of customary closing conditions, including the receipt of regulatory approvals and approvals of shareholders of each company.<\/p>\n

MJC Partners, LLC, served as the financial advisor to BCTF with Nelson Mullins Riley & Scarborough LLP serving as legal advisor. Piper Sandler & Co. served as financial advisor to Commerce with Otteson Shapiro LLP serving as legal advisor.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Bancorp 34, Inc., the holding company of Bank 34, and CBOA Financial, Inc., the holding company of Commerce Bank of Arizona, today jointly announced the signing of a definitive merger agreement to combine and form the second largest bank headquartered in Arizona. Under the terms of the definitive merger agreement, Commerce shareholders will receive 0.24 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":175271,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_eb_attr":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[5],"class_list":["post-175270","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-banking-finance","tag-hot-topics"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/staging.inbusinessphx.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/175270","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/staging.inbusinessphx.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/staging.inbusinessphx.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging.inbusinessphx.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging.inbusinessphx.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=175270"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/staging.inbusinessphx.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/175270\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging.inbusinessphx.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/staging.inbusinessphx.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=175270"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging.inbusinessphx.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=175270"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging.inbusinessphx.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=175270"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}