In a move that would increase its market share in Pennsylvania's Lawrence and Beaver counties, ESB Financial Corp. of Ellwood City has agreed to buy PHSB Financial Corp. for $82.6 million in cash and stock.
PHSB, of Beaver Falls, is the holding company for the $323 million-asset Peoples Home Savings Bank. It operates 10 branches in Beaver and Lawrence counties.
The deal, announced late Thursday and scheduled to close in the first quarter, would make the $1.4 billion-asset ESB and its ESB Bank subsidiary the No. 3 banking company in those counties, with 16 branches and just over 14% of the region's $4.1 billion of deposits.
ESB Bank would absorb Peoples Home Savings. James P. Wetzel Jr., PHSB's president and chief executive officer, would join ESB's board.
"We believe Peoples Home Savings Bank is an excellent banking franchise which provides a very attractive means for us to expand our operations in Beaver and Lawrence counties," Charlotte A. Zuschlag, ESB's president and CEO, said in a press release.
