FMB Merges

Lazaro Aleman, ECB Publishing, Inc.

The long-accustomed FMB logo will be history in the not-too-distant future.
First Bancshares, Inc., announced earlier this week the acquisition of the FMB Banking Corporation, the parent company of Farmers and Merchants Bank.
The two entities signed an agreement and plan of merger on Tuesday, July 24, with an expected closing day of the transaction in the fourth quarter of 2018.
The First Bancshares, Inc., headquartered in Mississippi, is the holding company for The First, a national banking association founded in 1996 and with operations in Mississippi, Louisiana, Alabama and Florida.
FMB, founded and headquartered in Monticello since 1907, today has expanded its presence to Tallahassee and Georgia.
“We are excited to combined with a quality institution in The First,” F. Wilson Carraway III, chairman of the FMB Board, is quoted in a press release from First Bancshares. “This combination will continue FMB's longstanding track record of service to its customers, employees, and communities, and it also provides significant value to our shareholders.”
The Monticello News on Wednesday afternoon spoke briefly with Ian Donkin, FMB president and CEO, who confirmed the signing of the definitive agreement on the previous day. He said the legal closing, once all the regulatory reviews were completed, was scheduled for Friday, Dec. 7. Which, he noted, was also coincidentally Pearl Harbor Day.
Donkin said the transaction should not cause disruptions to the FMB staff or customers. He said the two banking organizations' core systems were compatible and highly integrated, in terms of electronic banking, debit cards and the like.
“Our systems are mirror images of each other,” Donkin said. “The impact to customers should be very low to none. It will be very moderate. The faces that customers will see will be the same.”
FMB, however, would hence be called The First, he said. And the familiar FMB logo would be replaced.
Donkin said the reason for the merger was that banks in general were looking for better ways to serve their customers.
“With the additional capital structure of The First, we'll be able to expand our services,” he said. “We'll be part of a network that is growing along the coast from Florida to Louisiana.”
Donkin characterized the merger as overall good and repeated that it would have a minimal impact on customers. He said the bank will maintain the same hometown feel and flavor.
In fact, he said, one of FMB's primary considerations in entertaining the merger was that the other organization be socially and culturally compatible, as well as financially.
“We're compatible and make a great cultural blend,” he said. “And they have a decentralized governance that puts the power in the market.”
As for his own future, Donkin said he would remain to help develop a regional plan. He left it open-ended as what would happen afterwards.
“All that's to be fleshed out,” he said.
“It will be a little different,” Donkin said of the change in closing. “But it will be good. You can rely on the same people doing a good job.”
According to the press release, as of June 30 of this year, FMB had approximately $480.7 million in consolidated assets, $329.1 million in loans, $421.6 million in deposits and $38.8 million in consolidated stockholders' equity.
Upon completion of the transaction, it's stated that the combined entities will have approximately $3.0 billion in total assets, $2.5 billion in total deposits, and $2.0 billion in total loans, along with 67 locations in Florida, Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi and Louisiana.
The transaction, according to the release, will expand The First's footprint in the Florida panhandle and southern Georgia, and will further bolster the First's presence in the Tallahassee market.