PrivateBancorp Inc. of Chicago has agreed to buy the $217 million-asset Piedmont Bancshares Inc. in Atlanta for $46.6 million in cash and stock.
The deal, announced Thursday, is expected to close next quarter.
Buying Piedmont would take PrivateBancorp into Atlanta for the first time and give the $3.7 billion-asset company its first offices outside the Midwest. PrivateBancorp has branches in Chicago, St. Louis, Milwaukee, and Detroit.
Ralph B. Mandell, PrivateBancorp's president and chief executive officer, said in a press release that it was attracted to Atlanta because it has over 135,000 households earning at least $150,000 a year. The company intends to keep Piedmont's management and staff.
Sixty percent of the price would be paid in stock, and 40% would be paid in cash.
PrivateBancorp's last acquisition was its $64 million cash purchase of the $313.5 million-asset Bloomfield Hills Bancorp Inc. of Michigan in June of last year.
