Community Banks Inc. in Harrisburg, Pa., has a deal to buy Bucs Federal Bank in Owings Mills, Md., for $22.6 million in cash and stock.
The deal, announced Wednesday, is expected to close in the first quarter.
Bucs would be Community Banks' first purchase in Maryland but probably would not be its last there, Eddie L. Dunklebarger, the $3.3 billion-asset company's chairman, chief executive, and president, said in a press release.
"We expect to build our Maryland franchise based upon the impressive retail and commercial banking platform Bucs has developed," Mr. Dunklebarger said. "We anticipate continued growth in the combined franchises throughout the [Baltimore] metropolitan area via the combination of additional acquisitions and do novo branching."
Bucs, a former credit union that converted to a savings bank in 1998, has $143 million of assets and four branches in the Baltimore area. Its president and CEO, Herbert J. Moltzan, would become the president of Community Banks' Baltimore region.
