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Washington Federal – WAFD – To Acquire South Valley Bancorp

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Washington Federal, Inc. (NASDAQ: WAFD) and South Valley Bancorp, Inc. announced the signing of a definitive merger agreement. The merger agreement calls for the merger of South Valley with and into the Company, followed by the merger of South Valley’s wholly owned subsidiary, South Valley Bank & Trust, into the Company’s wholly owned subsidiary, Washington Federal. The aggregate merger consideration consists of shares of Washington Federal common stock having a value of approximately $33.7 million, and contingent cash earn-out payments of up to a maximum of approximately $39 million based on collections of a specific pool of South Valley’s assets. After consummation of the merger, the combined Company will have 190 offices in eight western states with total assets of approximately $14.4 billion and total deposits of approximately $9.6 billion, based on financial results as of December 31, 2011.

Roy M. Whitehead, Chairman, President and Chief Executive Officer of WAFD, commented, “This transaction will enhance our presence in southern and central Oregon, and materially expand our business banking and commercial real estate businesses in a state with improving business conditions. We look forward to working with South Valley’s professional and experienced bankers to increase our market position in the state and extend a warm and enthusiastic welcome to them. Attention now turns to our top priority – continued great service to every single South Valley and Washington Federal client as we combine the two companies over the next several months.”

South Valley President and Chief Executive Officer, William E. Castle, stated, “We are very proud to join forces with another Northwest company that, like South Valley, is known for doing business with integrity and treating people fairly. Washington Federal also has a long history of solid financial performance. By combining with them, we believe that a stronger financial partner for the communities served by South Valley will result and that, over the long run, shareholders will experience better returns and improved liquidity. Employees will find in Washington Federal an institution of similar values and culture, which also offers enhanced career opportunities. Clients will benefit from the greater convenience of a larger branch network and higher lending capacity. We look forward to working with our new colleagues to offer the finest customer experience in the industry and improved return for our shareholders.”


About WAFD

As of December 31, 2011, WAFD, headquartered in Seattle, Washington, had $13.6 billion in assets, $8.9 billion in deposits and $1.9 billion in stockholders’ equity. Post-closing, the combined Company will have approximately $2.1 billion of total deposits in Oregon and will rank 7th for deposit market share in the state with approximately 3.61% of the market, based on Industry information as of June 30, 2011.

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edliston
Post Written By: Ed Liston

Ed Liston is a senior contributing editor at TheStockMarketWatch.com. An active market watcher and investor, Ed guides an independent team of experienced analysts and writes for multiple stock trader publications. He is widely quoted in various financial publications on the Internet. When Ed is not writing about stocks, investing in stocks, talking about stocks, or otherwise doing something stock related, he likes to go sailing and fishing in his yacht.


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Ed Liston

Ed Liston is a senior contributing editor at TheStockMarketWatch.com. An active market watcher and investor, Ed guides an independent team of experienced analysts and writes for multiple stock trader publications. He is widely quoted in various financial publications on the Internet. When Ed is not writing about stocks, investing in stocks, talking about stocks, or otherwise doing something stock related, he likes to go sailing and fishing.

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