BB&T buys Bank of Kentucky following Citigroup Texas buy

Elizabeth Dexheimer and Madeline McMahon (c) 2014, Bloomberg News. BB&T Corp., the lender that agreed last week to acquire 41 Texas branches from Citigroup, plans to buy Bank of Kentucky Financial for $363 million in cash and stock.

Investors of the target company will receive 1.0126 BB&T shares and $9.40 in cash for each of their shares, the acquiring firm said Monday in a statement. That totals $47 a share, based on BB&T’s 14-day average closing price of $37.13 as of Sept. 4, according to the statement. BB&T, based in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, said it expects the deal will add to earnings per share in the first year after it’s completed.

BB&T Chief Executive Officer Kelly King is scooping up branches from competitors and seeking whole-bank acquisitions as he pushes his company into new regions including Texas. The Citigroup deal last week followed a smaller acquisition of 21 branches from the New York-based bank announced last year.

“We are developing exciting plans for additional banking center locations in the Greater Cincinnati area,” King said in the statement. “Establishing this new banking region with such strong leadership is an important first step.”

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BB&T is making acquisitions as other regional banks hesitate to join the flurry amid stricter regulations. Fifth Third Bancorp CEO Kevin Kabat said he plans to focus on growing his business instead of acquiring new ones.

“My appetite hasn’t changed from what I’ve talked about in the last couple of years,” Kabat said Monday at an investor conference in New York. “I’m not particularly optimistic that 2015 is the year that happens.”

Bank of Kentucky, based in Crestview Hills, has $1.9 billion in assets, $1.6 billion in deposits and 32 branches, according to the statement.