Colorado community banks to merge

Denver-based InBankshares Corp., will merge with fellow Colorado community bank Legacy Bank next year in a stock-and-cash transaction, creating a $1.2 billion institution. .Wiley-based Legacy Bank, which will merge into InBankshares' subsidiary InBank, has nearly $500 million in total assets, $316 million in gross loans and $426 million in deposits. Legacy has nine full-service Colorado offices, including Colorado Springs, Pueblo, Pueblo West, Cañon City, Buena Vista, Lamar and Wiley. InBank has more than $700 million in total assets, $426 million in gross loans and $603 million in deposits. .The combined bank is expected to cover Colorado's Front Range and northern New Mexico with 19 offices, including 12 full-service and two LPOs in Colorado. Five full-service officers will be in northern New Mexico..Dave Esgar and his sister Janet McClure will continue to hold a major stake as part of the Esgar family in INBC post-closing and will have a board seat on the INBC and InBank boards of directors. Legacy Bank Regional President Andrew Trainor will join the InBank executive team.."Our family looks forward to the strategic partnership and success that we believe the combined bank will have moving forward," Esgar said. "Legacy Bank has a long-standing history of service excellence and giving back to its communities. InBank is the right partner to extend and build upon this proud history as a locally-managed community bank.".More than 50 percent immediate earnings per share accretion is expected for InBank in the first full year of combined operations. Under the terms of the merger agreement, INBC will issue 3.56 million shares of INBC common stock and pay $21.25 million in cash to Legacy Bank shareholders in the aggregate. Based on the $9.75-per-share INBC closing common stock price as of Nov. 29, the consideration to be paid by INBC is valued at approximately $56 million. INBC is also expecting a pro forma return on average assets of nearly 1 percent, and a tangible book value earnback of approximately 2 1/2 years. ."We are excited to announce this partnership that expands upon our commitment to serving the Colorado front range and northern New Mexico markets by adding new and important growth markets to InBank's footprint," said Ed Francis, chair of the board, president and CEO for InBankshares Corp. and InBank. "Legacy is a great fit for us geographically, strategically, financially, and culturally." .To Francis, the merger "is expected to be a transformational merger for InBank, with the potential to gain significant scale and operating leverage, increase our market capitalization, and significantly improve our earnings power."