The cash buy will allow the 102-year-old Lafayette bank to expand into Orleans and Jefferson parishes. Home Bancorp Inc., the holding company of Lafayette-based Home Bank, is the latest local bank to branch out into other Louisiana markets with the announcement of its plan to purchase GS Financial Corp., the parent company of Metairie-based Guaranty Savings Bank.
The $26.4 million cash buy will allow the 102-year-old Lafayette bank to expand into Orleans and Jefferson parishes, though the release does not state how many branches the acquisition will add to Home Bank in the New Orleans area. According to a report from The Times-Picayune, Home Bank currently has 18 branches.
"Guaranty's deep relationships with its customers and excellent branch locations provide the ideal setting for Home Bank's expansion into Orleans and Jefferson Parishes," Home Bank President and CEO John Bordelon says in a prepared statement. "There's new energy and opportunity in the greater New Orleans area, and Home Bank plans to be a key contributor in the resurgence of the region."
According to The Times-Picayune, Home Bancorp already has expanded into other New Orleans area parishes by taking over Statewide Bank, a Covington lender with six branches in St. Tammany Parish that was shut down by the FDIC in March 2010. The bank failure marked the first one in Louisiana in seven years.
GS Financial shareholders will receive $21 in cash for each of the approximately 1.25 million shares, bringing the deal to $26.4 million, Bordelon tells The T-P.
The deal is expected to close in the third quarter of this year, pending the required shareholder and regulatory approval. No additional capital will be needed to complete the purchase, according to Home Bank.
Bordelon was unable to be reached for comment Thursday morning.