Mississippi’s Hancock Whitney, the parent of Hancock Whitney Bank, has agreed to acquire Louisiana-based MidSouth Bancorp, which owns MidSouth Bank, in an all-stock transaction.
MidSouth Bank has 42 branches across Louisiana and Texas.
As per the agreed terms of the merger deal, each MidSouth Bancorp share can be swapped for 0.2952 shares of Hancock common stock.
Through the deal, Hancock will add $1.7 billion in assets, around $900m in loans, and $1.4bn in deposits to its books.
According to Hancock, the loans to be acquired as part of the deal are “high-yielding” while the deposits are “low-cost”.
The deal is slated to complete in the third quarter of this year.

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By GlobalDataHancock expects the acquisition to be accretive to its earnings per share from the first quarter of next year.
Currently, the transaction is awaiting approvals from regulators and shareholders.
Hancock president and CEO John Hairston said: “The merger fits perfectly with our stated strategies of adding scale and enhancing value through in-market, financially accretive, low-risk transactions that strengthen our current franchise and provide opportunities for future growth.”
MidSouth Bancorp president and CEO Jim McLemore added: “This merger will provide our customers, employees, and shareholders the benefits of scale it would have taken years for us to accomplish independently.”