First Busey strikes $917 million deal to acquire CrossFirst Bankshares

First Busey Corp. in Champaign, Illinois, said Tuesday it would pay $916.8 million in stock to acquire CrossFirst Bankshares in a deal that would create a $20 billion-asset bank with an expanded presence across multiple central and western markets. It would have a combined loan-to-deposit ratio of 86%, based on current data.

The deal, slated to close in the first half of 2025, would merge the Leawood, Kansas-based CrossFirst into the $12 billion-asset First Busey, forming a bank with $17 billion of deposits, $15 billion of loans, and $13 billion of wealth management assets under care. It would have a combined loan-to-deposit ratio of 86%, based on current data.

The merged company would have 77 branches across 10 states. 

“CrossFirst is a natural fit alongside Busey’s established commercial and wealth management offerings and our payment technology solutions business,” First Busey Chairman and CEO Van Dukeman said in a press release Tuesday announcing the deal.

“By leveraging CrossFirst’s established presence in attractive markets with compelling growth potential, this partnership is expected to serve as a catalyst for additional commercial banking growth as well as expanded opportunities to grow our existing wealth management and payments businesses,” he said.

The combination would expand First Busey’s footprint to Arizona, Colorado, Kansas, New Mexico, Oklahoma and Texas. The buyer said the deal would give it entrance to the “high-growth” markets of Kansas City, Dallas-Fort Worth, Denver, Phoenix and Wichita, Kansas.

Upon closing of the deal, First Busey’s shareholders would own approximately 63.5% of the combined company; CrossFirst’s investors would own the rest. It would continue to operate under the First Busey name and continue to trade on the Nasdaq under the “BUSE” symbol.

The combined company’s board would consist of eight directors from First Busey and five from CrossFirst, with Dukeman serving as executive chairman and CEO. CrossFirst President and CEO Mike Maddox would become president and executive vice chairman.

Maddox would be in line to succeed Dukeman as CEO about a year after the deal closes, the companies said in the release. Dukeman intends to remain executive chairman indefinitely.

“We are confident this partnership will create significant benefits for our teams, customers, communities and shareholders,” Maddox said in the release.

Both First Busey and CrossFirst have been active acquirers in recent years. Between the two management teams, they closed 11 mergers since 2013.

Excluding one-time merger charges and assuming expected cost savings, First Busey estimated the acquisition would result in earnings per share accretion of approximately 20% in 2026, the first full year of combined operations. Tangible book value per share dilution was projected to be 0.6% with a forecasted earn-back period of six months.

Following a slow year in 2023, when only 100 M&A deals were announced in the banking sector, more than 70 banks have announced plans to sell this year. That puts 2024 on pace to easily exceed last year’s total.

By deal value, the First Busey-CrossFirst tie-up is the fifth-largest announced to date this year.

The biggest was Winter Haven, Florida-based SouthState Corp.’s $2 billion, all-stock plan to acquire Independent Bank Group in McKinney, Texas. It was announced in May.

That was followed closely by Kansas City-based UMB Financial’s April plan to purchase Heartland Financial USA in Denver in an all-stock transaction valued at just under $2 billion.