CITBA Financial Corp., Mooresville, Ind., has agreed to merge with privately held Merchants Bancorp, Carmel, Ind. Merchant’s subsidiary Merchants Bank of Indiana is the owner of multifamily mortgage lender P/R Mortgage & Investment Corp.
Merchants also does residential mortgage and agricultural lending. It has $1.2 billion in assets while CITBA, parent of Citizens Bank, has $375 million.
Merchants’ owners are Michael F. Petrie and Randall D. Rogers and their families. Petrie said, "The combined companies provide strong synergies that will promote the geographic expansion of our product and service lines without job loss. In fact, we expect this merger to create more job opportunities, allow us to provide better services to our customers, be better stewards to our communities, and reward our shareholders.”
Under the terms of the deal, CITBA, which is traded over-the-counter, will be the surviving corporation but will be renamed Merchants Bancorp. Merchants’ shareholders will exchange their stock for 80% of the outstanding CITBA shares.
