It marks the third-largest bank acquisition
Atlantic Union would gain $14.4 billion of assets, creating a combined company with $39.2 billion should the transaction close as planned by the end of the third quarter of 2025. The combined company would have total deposits of $32 billion and loans of $29.8 billion.
Atlantic Union’s Mid-Atlantic footprint would gain 53 branches and double its wealth business by increasing assets under management by more than $6.5 billion.
“At our 2018 investor day, I noted that part of our long-term vision was to complete the ‘Golden Crescent’ from Baltimore, through Washington D.C. and Richmond to Hampton Roads and recreate a banking franchise that had not existed since the 1990s,” John Asbury, president and CEO of Atlantic Union, said in a press release announcing the deal. “Atlantic Union will create a preeminent regional bank, with Virginia as its linchpin, that spans the lower mid-Atlantic into the Southeast.”
Three members of Sandy Spring’s board of directors, including its Chairman and CEO Dan Schrider, would join the Atlantic Union board of directors upon closing.
“Our partnership with Atlantic Union is the right long-term decision for our shareholders, clients and employees. This combination will deliver enhanced scale, diversity in the market, and capabilities for our clients, and it will provide greater opportunities for our employees to grow within a larger organization,” Schrider said in the release.
Winter Haven, Florida-based
More banks are seeking business line and geographic diversity through M&A as well as the scale needed to invest in technology. This is playing out across financial services and broadly over several sectors, said Ernst & Young’s Mitch Berlin.
Berlin, EY’s strategy and transactions Americas vice chair, said once the presidential election is over and buyers can assess regulatory expectations knowing who will be in the White House next year, deal activity could pick up further.
“The election may still give dealmakers some pause,” he said, “but the remainder of 2024 should see moderate increases month-over-month and savvy companies are using this moment to strategically position themselves for the next wave of growth through transactions.”
Through the first three quarters of this year, 93 banks announced plans to sell. That put the industry on pace to easily exceed the 98 deals announced all of last year, according to updated data from S&P Global Market Intelligence.
The firm said that the acquisitions announced in the first nine months of this year had an aggregate deal value of $11.42 billion, more than double the total of $4.15 billion in 2023.
