First Financial in Indiana buying Tennessee bank

Philip - stock.adobe.com

First Financial in Terre Haute, Indiana, has agreed to buy SimplyBank in Dayton, Tennessee, as part of its Southeastern growth plan.

The $4.8 billion-asset First Financial said it would pay $73.4 million in cash for SimplyBank to expand in Tennessee and enter Georgia. 

SimplyBank has $702 million of assets, 10 branches in Tennessee and three branches in Georgia.

First Financial operates 70 branches across Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky and Tennessee through First Financial Bank. If the sale is completed in the second quarter as expected, the combined bank would have total assets of about $5.5 billion.

"SimplyBank provides us with an opportunity to deepen our commitment to the Tennessee market while expanding into attractive new" communities in Georgia, Norman Lowery, president and CEO of First Financial, said in a news release late Monday that announced the deal.

SimplyBank's Tennessee branches are in Benton, Chattanooga, Cleveland, Dayton, Decatur, Harriman, Rockwood, Soddy-Daisy and Spring City. Its branches in Georgia are in Flintstone, Ringgold and Rossville.

First Financial has bought several banks in recent years. Its most recent deal was the 2021 buyout of Hancock Bancorp in Hawesville, Kentucky, for about $31 million. Its largest was the $134 million acquisition of HopFed Bancorp in Hopkinsville, Kentucky, in 2019. 

In its latest deal, First Financial was advised by Raymond James and Amundsen Davis. Piper Sandler and Frost Brown Todd advised SimplyBank.