The serial acquirer Sky Financial Group Inc. of Bowling Green, Ohio, is buying the two-branch Falls Bank of Stow, Ohio, in the growing Akron market.
It is to pay $12.8 million in cash and stock for the $83.6 million-asset bank - stock for 81% of Falls' stock, cash for the rest. (Individual Falls shareholders could choose either or a combination.) The deal, announced Tuesday, is to close in the fourth quarter.
Falls' branches, which have $54 million of deposits, are in its headquarters city and Cuyahoga Falls. They would become branches of Sky Bank, a commercial bank.
The buyer, which has $15.2 billion of assets, has bought 11 banks in the last eight years. On June 3 it bought Belmont Bancorp of Bridgeport, Ohio, for $70.3 million.
Marty E. Adams, Sky's chairman, chief executive, and president, said in the press release announcing the Falls deal that he is interested buying banks in faster-growing areas in his current markets. Sky has branches in Ohio, Pennsylvania, Michigan, Indiana, and West Virginia.
Mr. Adams did not return a phone call by press time Wednesday.
Analysts said the Falls deal is further evidence of Sky's intention to build market share without overwhelming its balance sheet.
Jeff K. Davis of First Horizon National Corp.'s FTN Midwest Research said most of Sky's recent deals have been "tiny" and with minimal execution and financial risk. "Incrementally they help in local markets, but they are not going to move the numbers much on an individual level," he said in a phone interview.
Terry McEvoy, an analyst at Oppenheimer & Co., said Sky prefers buying banks to building branches. Falls would bring it seasoned lenders and established customers, which would have been harder to get by building branches, he said.
Buying Falls Bank would not interfere with Sky's integration of Belmont, Mr. McEvoy said.
A bank with less acquisition experience than Sky "will in many cases complete an acquisition and remain on the sidelines," he said. "But because Sky has been so active on the M&A market, their integration team is well experienced. Moving on to do another deal should not be a worry, especially given how small these deals are."
