Southern Bancorp buying a fellow Arkansas bank

Six weeks after receiving what its CEO termed a “transformational” infusion of capital from the Treasury Department's Emergency Capital Investment Program, Southern Bancorp in Arkadelphia, Arkansas, has begun putting some of that largesse to work by purchasing another bank.

The $2.1 billion-asset Southern agreed to pay an undisclosed sum for FCB Financial Services, holding company for the $200 million-asset Premier Bank of Arkansas. Founded in 1998, Premier Bank maintains offices in Marion and West Memphis, as well as its headquarters in Jonesboro. Southern operates 51 branches in Arkansas and Mississippi.

“We are excited to introduce the Premier Bank team and its customers to Southern Bancorp’s mission-driven approach to banking,” Southern CEO Darrin Williams said in a press release Monday.

Southern, one of the nation’s first community development financial institution banks, has been an active acquirer. It has completed four M&A deals since 2009, the latest, in May, landing the $189 million-asset Arkansas County Bank in DeWitt.

Southern expects to close the deal for Premier Bank of Arkansas in the second quarter.

At the same time, Southern has been more active in raising capital than most CDFI institutions, adding $50 million between 2017 and 2021. In December, the Treasury Department announced plans to invest an additional $237.5 million in Southern as part of the Emergency Capital Investment Program. Since then, Williams has made no secret of his plans to leverage that infusion to kick the company’s expansion plans into higher gear.

“We’re very much in the acquisition mode,” Williams said in an interview earlier in January. “We want to really grow our footprint in underserved communities and markets, particularly in low-wealth communities and communities of color.”

For Premier, the decision to sell was driven in large part by scale, and the opportunity to combine with a bank whose balance sheet is 10 times larger than its own.

“Joining with Southern Bancorp … will allow us to greatly expand our services and reach even more families who would benefit from increased access to capital and financial development,” Donny Underwood, CEO of Premier, said in a press release.

In December, the Treasury Department said it would invest a total of $8.7 billion in more than 180 banks and credit unions as part of ECIP, which aims to provide cash to financial institutions active in underserved communities.