W.Va.-based United Bankshares to acquire Essex Bank for $303M

Henrico County-based Community Bankers Trust Corp., the parent company of Essex Bank, has entered into a $303.3 million deal to be acquired by Charleston, West Virginia-based United Bankshares Inc., United Bank’s parent.

After the companies announced the agreement Thursday, Community Bankers Trust’s stock rose 29.78% as of mid-afternoon to $11.94 per share and United Bankshares’ stock price fell about 5.6% to $38.84 per share Thursday afternoon.

If approved by the Securities and Exchange Commission, the deal would create the nation’s 38th largest banking company based on market capitalization, worth about $29 billion in assets, according to a news release. Community Bankers Trust had assets of about $1.7 billion as of March 31 and has 18 branch offices in Virginia and six in Maryland. United, which is based in Charleston, West Virginia, and Washington, D.C., had approximately $27 billion in assets as of March 31, and United Bank and its subsidiaries have 223 branches, primarily on the East Coast and in West Virginia and Ohio.

The agreement, scheduled to close in the fourth quarter, calls for United to acquire all outstanding shares of Community Bankers Trust in exchange for common shares of United, and the Henrico company and Essex Bank properties would be branded as United after the merger. The deal would bring United Bank into the Lynchburg, Richmond and the Northern Neck region markets, United Chairman and CEO Richard M. Adams said in a statement.

“We are excited to become a part of the United Bank family,” Community Bankers Trust President and CEO Rex L. Smith III said in a statement. “They have a steadfast and proven commitment to their customers and the communities in which they operate. The merger will give us the ability to offer better and more sophisticated products and services while still maintaining the community bank approach to doing business with local leadership. This will be a great benefit to our customers, to our shareholders and to the communities of Central Virginia, the Northern Neck and Eastern Maryland.”

Smith will be retained as regional president responsible for the existing Essex Bank locations in Virginia.

Piper Sandler & Co. served as financial adviser for the deal, and Williams Mullen served as legal counsel to Community Bankers Trust.