First Citizens Bancshares, Inc. (OTCEM: FIZN, $2.5 Billion in assets, “First Citizens”) and Park National Corporation (NYSE: PRK, $9.9 Billion in assets, “Park”) today announced they have signed a definitive agreement pursuant to which First Citizens will merge with and into Park.
Olsen Palmer LLC initiated the transaction, is serving as exclusive financial advisor to First Citizens Bancshares, Inc., and issued a fairness opinion to its Board of Directors.
The aggregate value of the all-stock transaction is approximately $321.0 million, based on the mutually-agreed upon fixed exchange ratio of 0.52 and Park’s recent average closing price, valuing First Citizens at a price-to-tangible book multiple of 1.84x and a price-to-earnings (LTM) multiple of 15.0x.
This is Park’s largest ever bank acquisition and its first in 7 years. With this transaction, Park will enter a new state banking market and will also cross over the $10 billion asset threshold.
Olsen Palmer remains one of the top 3 bank M&A advisors nationwide – and #2 sell-side – as ranked by the aggregate number of whole-bank M&A transactions advised upon since 2020. Over that same period, the firm’s Managing Partner Christopher Olsen is the #1 individual bank M&A advisor nationwide as ranked by total deal count, according to S&P Global.