Heartland in Ohio to enter Cincinnati with latest bank acquisition

Heartland BancCorp in Whitehall, Ohio, will enter the Cincinnati market with an agreement to buy Victory Community Bank in Fort Mitchell, Ky.

The $1.1 billion-asset Heartland said in a press release Monday that it will pay $41.1 million in cash and stock for the $179 million-asset Victory. The deal, which is expected to close in the second quarter, priced Victory at 161.3% of its tangible book value.

Jack Kenkel Jr., Victory’s president and CEO, will join Heartland’s board.

Heartland said it expects the deal to be 12.2% accretive to its 2020 earnings per share and 19.4% accretive the next year. It should take about three years for Heartland to earn back any dilution to its tangible book value.

Victory has three branches, $154 million in loans and $137 million in deposits. Its sister company, Victory Mortgage, is affiliated with Fischer Homes and has offices in Louisville, Ky.; Columbus, Ohio; Indianapolis; and Atlanta.

Victory Mortgage, as part of the merger, has entered into a cooperation agreement with Heartland for certain products and services.

“This transaction expands Heartland’s presence in the attractive northern Kentucky and Cincinnati markets and represents a complementary fit, both strategically and culturally, with Heartland’s business model,” Scott McComb, Heartland’s chairman and CEO, said in the release.

“Victory’s strong noninterest income generation complements our own strategies and its loan portfolio provides diversity to our balance sheet,” McComb added. “The combination … provides the opportunity to create efficiencies and enhance the value of the combined company.”

Heartland was advised by D.A. Davidson and Hunton Andrews Kurth. Victory was advised by Boenning & Scattergood and Dinsmore & Shohl.

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