The Daily Southerner, Tarboro, NC

Local News

February 26, 2013

Southern Bank taking over Heritage in sale

THE DAILY SOUTHERNER Submitted

TARBORO — Two banking companies with Edgecombe County branches will combine in a sale announced last week.

Southern BancShares of Mount Olive, which has locations in Macclesfield and Sharpsburg, will acquire Heritage BancShares of Lucama, with locations in Tarboro and Pinetops, in a deal worth nearly $4 million in cash and stock.

If approved by banking regulators, Southern will pay up to $3.9 million in cash for Heritage common and preferred stock. At closing, shares of Heritage stock will be cancelled and converted into the right to receive $125 in cash or 0.1010 shares of Southern common stock and each outstanding share of Heritage preferred stock will be converted into the right to receive $25 in cash or one share of a newly created series of Southern preferred stock.

The acquisition will create a combined bank holding company with $2.3 billion in assets and 77 branches in North Carolina and Virginia.

Bank officials have told regulators the sale is expected to be completed during the second quarter.

"Both of our organizations have a very community-focused banking model with a long history of serving eastern North Carolina," said Joseph L. Evans, president and chief executive officer of Heritage. "Our customers will get the same great local service but have the advantage of much larger network of locations and ATMs."

Southern Bank, which opened its doors for the first time on Jan. 1, 1901, has 65 locations — most in North Carolina, According to

www.bankencyclopedia.com, Southern has assets of nearly $2.1 billion and a net income of $38.4 million. Heritage, which opened on Sept. 1, 1914, has 12 locations and assets of $265.5 million

and a net income of $900,000.

According to John Heeden, senior vice president and director of marketing and communications for Southern Bank, said there were no employee changes planned as part of the merger. Heeden said identifying signage at Heritage branches would be changed to Heritage after the merger is finalized.

"This represented an excellent opportunity for us to increase our presence and market share in these areas, as Southern Bank currently operates offices in several neighboring communities within the region," said J. Grey Morgan, chairman and chief executive officer of Southern. "While our combined organizations will operate as Southern Bank, we value and embrace The Heritage Bank's 99-year history of service excellence in eastern North

Carolina. Their guiding principles and core values are shared by Southern Bank. We all look forward to continuing The Heritage Bank's legacy of commitment to service excellence and community banking in eastern North Carolina."









WHERE THEY ARE

IN EDGECOMBE



Southern Bank

• Macclesfield

• Sharpsburg



The Heritage Bak

• Pinetops

• Tarboro



 

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