Mid Penn Bancorp plans seventh bank acquisition in 11 years

• Key Insight: Mid Penn Bancorp plans to acquire a South Jersey-based bank.
• What's at Stake: The proposed deal would bolster Mid Penn's presence in the Philadelphia metro region.
• Forward Look: It's the latest example of the acceleration of bank M&A this year.
  

Less than a year after striking a deal to expand its presence in greater Philadelphia, Mid Penn Bancorp is doing it again, this time with the pending acquisition of a South Jersey-based bank.
Mid Penn, headquartered in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, has agreed to acquire 1st Colonial Bancorp in Mount Laurel, New Jersey, in a cash-and-stock deal valued at $101 million, the two  companies said in a press release. If the deal is approved by regulators and shareholders, it will create a bank with $7.2 billion of assets and with more than 65 branches in the two states.

Mid Penn, which currently has about $6.4 billion of assets, has been a consistent player in bank M&A, which has accelerated in terms of the numbers of deals announced this year, the combined value of those deals and the timing for deal closure. Since 2014, Mid Penn has completed six whole-bank acquisitions, including the $127 million acquisition of William Penn Bancorp, which was announced in November 2024 and closed six months later in May 2025. 

The tie-up with 1st Colonial is expected to close late in the first quarter of 2026 or early in the second quarter. It's expected to be immediately accretive to Mid Penn's earnings per share, the companies said.

Acquiring 1st Colonial is "a strategic move to further expand [Mid Penn's] footprint into the greater Philadelphia metropolitan area, particularly southern New Jersey," Mid Penn Chairman and CEO Rory Ritrievi said in the press release. 1st Colonial, which was founded in 2000, has two full-service branches and a loan production office in southern New Jersey, and a third branch in Limerick, Pennsylvania, according to the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp.

The deal "brings together two institutions with a deep understanding of our customers' needs, a shared commitment to our communities and a focus on shareholder return," Ritrievi said.

It's been a busy week for bank mergers and acquisitions. The Mid Penn-1st Colonial transaction marks at least the sixth bank acquisition to be announced this week. The list of deals includes QNB Corp's pending $41 million purchase of The Victory Bancorp, joining two banks based in Pennsylvania, as well as First Merchants' planned $241 million acquisition of First Savings Financial Group, where both of the banks are located in Indiana. 

Also on the list are two Washington State-based banks, Heritage Financial and Olympic Bancorp, in a deal in which Heritage will acquire Olympic for approximately $176.6 million.

As part of Mid Penn's agreement with 1st Colonial, Robert White, president and CEO of 1st Colonial, will become a senior risk advisor at Mid Penn and serve as the bank's greater Philadelphia area market president, the two banks said. 

In addition, one director from 1st Colonial's board will be nominated by the board in consultation with Mid Penn to join Mid Penn's board, which currently has 13 directors.

1st Colonial, the parent company of 1st Colonial Community Bank, had $877 million of assets, $743 million of deposits and $640 million of loans at the end of June. In an investor presentation in late March, it said it expected asset growth of 5% to 7% this year and 11% to 13% in 2026.

Terms of the deal call for 60% of 1st Colonial common shares to be converted into Mid Penn common stock, with the remaining 40% to be exchanged for cash. 1st Colonial shareholders will be able to choose to receive either 0.6945 of a share of Mid Penn common stock or $18.50 in cash for each common share of 1st Colonial they own, the two banks said.

If the transaction is completed, 1st Colonial shareholders will own roughly 8% of Mid Penn's outstanding shares of common stock. 1st Colonial will be required to pay $4.04 million if the deal is "terminated under certain circumstances," according to a regulatory filing.

Read more about bank M&A here: https://www.americanbanker.com/tag/mergers-and-acquisitions

As of Sept. 22, there had been 121 bank M&A deals announced since the start of the year, Laurie Havener Hunsicker, an analyst at Seaport Research, said in a recent note.

July was a particularly busy time. That month, the largest deal of the year was announced when Pinnacle Financial Partners in Nashville, Tennessee, and Synovus Financial in Columbus, Georgia, announced an $8.6 billion merger of equals that would create a $116 billion-asset bank.

Also this week, Mid Penn, which has been trying to build out its asset and wealth management business, said it has agreed to buy Cumberland Advisors, a registered investment advisory firm in Sarasota, Florida, with $3.3 billion in assets under management, according to the filing. 

Mid Penn said it plans to pay $5.5 million in cash and stock for Cumberland and merge it into its subsidiary, MBP Financial Services, though Mid Penn will maintain the Cumberland brand and headquarters. Mid Penn said it would pay up to $2.2 million more if "certain milestones" are met, according to an investor presentation that was filed on the day the deal was announced.

Cumberland was previously headquartered in southern New Jersey and derives about 30% of its business in the Northeast, the presentation said. With Cumberland, Mid Penn expects to add about $9 million in annualized fee revenue, it said in the presentation.