Heartland Financial USA Enters Merger Agreement With Premier Valley Bank

(RTTNews) - Heartland Financial USA, Inc. (HTLF) announced it has entered into a definitive merger agreement with Premier Valley Bank (PVLY.PK) based in Fresno, California. Premier Valley shareholders will receive approximately $95 million or $7.73 per share of Premier Valley common stock in the merger, and may elect to receive this payment in shares of Heartland common stock or in cash, subject to proration so that 70% of the total payment is in Heartland common stock and 30% in cash.

Premier Valley Bank is a commercial bank serving markets in the Central Valley and Central Coast of California from five banking locations. Premier Valley will become a wholly-owned subsidiary of Heartland, and will become Heartland's tenth state-chartered bank. As of March 31, 2015, Premier Valley had assets of approximately $647 million, loans of $394 million and deposits of $561 million.

Heartland expects the transaction to be accretive to its earnings per share within the first full year of combined operations.