FORT SMITH (KFSM) – Benefit Bank of Fort Smith has been bought by Muskogee, Okla.-based Armstrong Bank in a deal that will merge the entities in mid-2015, according to a statement released by Armstrong Bank this week.
Under the agreement, Armstrong Bank and Benefit Bank will continue to operate under their current names and as separate banks until the middle of next year, when they will merge. The transaction is expected to close in early 2015, Armstrong Bank officials said.
Armstrong Bank will acquire all of Benefit Bank’s stock, and the purchase will be completed following the approval of regulatory agencies and the stockholders of each company.
“We have wanted to be in Arkansas for some time and could not have found a better partner than Benefit Bank,” Sinclair Armstrong, chairman of Armstrong Bank, said in a statement.
Armstrong Bank is owned by a privately-held holding company called Ironhorse Financial Group, Inc., headquartered in Muskogee. Its assets total $652.7 million. It has 17 bank location in northern and eastern Oklahoma.
Benefit Bank has four locations in Fort Smith and was established locally in 1999. Its assets total $187.4 million, according to Armstrong Bank’s statement.
Armstrong Bank’s statement did not include the financial details of the transaction.
