Tupelo Based BancorpSouth Buys Cadence Bank In Stock Deal

TUPELO, MISS. (WCBI) – A Tupelo-based bank has bought a Texas-based bank with a big presence in Northeast Mississippi.

BancorpSouth CEO Dan Rollins has known Cadence Bank CEO Paul Murphy for more than twenty years. They both worked in the banking industry in Texas before moving to Mississippi.

“If I had told folks that I wanted to find a merger partner with their senior management team had been to school at University of Mississippi and Mississippi State, I could have looked for a hundred years and not found that,” Rollins said.

Murphy is a Mississippi native and graduated from MSU. He says BancorpSouth’s focus on community banking will complement Cadence’s emphasis on commercial banking.

“We have more years, advanced years of commercial lending and middle-market lending, so fundamentally, those things are similar, but not exactly the same, as BancorpSouth has been building out a commercial lending team, we’re much further along with that effort and so it’s complimentary for both banks, kind of a win-win,” Murphy said.

BancorpSouth is buying Cadence in a stock deal valued at two point eight billion dollars. The deal values the combined company at more than six billion dollars.

Bancorpsouth shareholders will own approximately 55 percent of the company, while Cadence shareholders will own 45 percent.For investors, earnings per share will go up over time as a result of the merger. The bank will retain the Cadence name. That name and logo change for BancorpSouth could be the biggest noticeable change for customers.

“So we are going to have the Cadence Arena, we’re excited about that, so certainly the name change will be the biggest thing you will see in the town, our people are here, this is our headquarters, this is our home, we’re a Mississippi chartered bank,” Rollins said.

The company will keep operations centers in Tupelo and Starkville.

“The Starkville team is just really important to me, I went to school there, we’re proud of our team there, it means more opportunity, more branches, more products and we’re committed to the Golden Triangle for sure,” Murphy said.

The merger is expected to close in the fourth quarter of this year.

The name change from BancorpSouth to Cadence will take place in 2022.