Premier Financial Bancorp Inc. of Huntington, W.Va., has a deal to buy Citizens First Bank Inc. of Ravenswood for $11.7 million.
The deal, announced Thursday, is expected to close next quarter.
Premier is a $547 million-asset community bank holding company with five subsidiaries in Kentucky, Ohio, and West Virginia.
Citizens First was founded in 2001 and now has $59 million of assets. It would retain its name and operate as a subsidiary of Premier. "We believe Premier can give us a competitive edge by providing 'behind-the-scenes' expertise in the areas of compliance, auditing, … [information technology], and cost management while allowing us to remain community bankers and serve our customers as we always have," Thomas M. Lookabough, Citizens First's CEO said in a press release.
