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Atlantic Union to buy Sandy Spring in Maryland for $1.6 billion

Atlantic Union Bankshares in Richmond, Va., has agreed to buy Sandy Spring Bancorp in Olney, Md.

The $27.5 billion-asset Atlantic Union said in a press release that it will pay $1.6 billion in stock for the $14.4 billion-asset Sandy Spring. The deal, which is expected to close in the third quarter of next year, priced Sandy Spring at 128% of its tangible book value.

Atlantic Union also plans to raise $350 million in conjunction with the deal through an equity offering. The company said it plans to sell about $2 billion of commercial real estate loans after the deal is completed.

Sandy Spring has 53 branches, $11.7 billion in deposits and $11.5 billion in loans.

“With today’s announcement of our partnership with Sandy Spring, Atlantic Union will create a preeminent regional bank, with Virginia as its linchpin, that spans the lower mid-Atlantic into the Southeast and that is committed to the communities it serves,” John C. Asbury, Atlantic Union’s president and CEO, said in the release.

Three Sandy Spring directors, including Dan Schrider, the company’s president and CEO, will join Atlantic Union’s board. Joseph O’Brien, Sandy Spring’s chief banking officer, will become president of the Greater Washington, D.C., Region and Maryland and serve on the integration team and Atlantic’s Union’s executive leadership team.

The deal is expected to be 23% accretive to Atlantic Union’s 2026 earnings per share. It should take about two years for the company to earn back any dilution to its tangible book value.

Atlantic Union plans to cut about 27% of Sandy Spring’s annual noninterest expenses. It expects to incur roughly $115 million of merger-related expenses.

Morgan Stanley and Davis Polk & Wardwell advised Atlantic Union. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods and Kilpatrick Townsend & Stockton advised Sandy Spring.

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