Dive Brief:
- Bloomington, Illinois-based HBT Financial will acquire CNB Bank Shares in a roughly $170.2 million transaction set to close in the first quarter of 2026, the bank holding companies said Monday.
- Purchasing CNB Bank & Trust – based in Carlinville, 110 miles southwest of HBT – will give the acquirer 18 added locations, including a brick-and-mortar presence in Missouri for the first time. HBT serves Illinois and eastern Iowa. The combined company is expected to count 84 branches.
- The transaction is set to create a combined institution that will count roughly $6.9 billion in assets, $5.9 billion in deposits and $4.7 billion in loans, the companies said.
Dive Insight:
The deal continues 2025’s glut of mergers and acquisitions in the banking space: 140 bank deals had been announced this year, as of Friday, Laurie Havener Hunsicker, an analyst with Seaport Research Partners, wrote in a note. That’s the highest total since 2022, when 156 transactions were proposed.
Specifically, 2025’s third quarter saw the most dealmaking among banks in four years, according to S&P Global Market Intelligence. Fifty-two U.S.-based bank deals were announced between July and September – the highest figure since the third quarter of 2021, which saw 59.
The CNB deal will mark HBT’s 11th merger since 2007, the bank said.
“HBT has historically followed a disciplined approach to M&A, which has led to logical expansion of our footprint and outstanding financial performance,” J. Lance Carter, CEO of HBT and its subsidiary, Heartland Bank, said in a statement Monday. “Uniting with CNBN will help generate profitable growth and create shareholder value in coming years.”
Fred Drake, HBT’s executive chair, cited CNB’s “long and storied history in Central Illinois, very much like HBT.”
“We are both very focused on serving our customers as a true community bank,” Drake said. “We are an excellent match.”
Investors holding roughly 28% of CNB’s outstanding shares have agreed to vote in favor of the transaction, HBT said. Under the deal, CNB investors will receive 1.0434 shares of HBT stock for each CNB share they own, or $27.73 in cash – or a combination of both.
The deal’s $170.2 million value stems from HBT’s 15-day volume weighted average stock price, from Friday, of $24.44. Once the transaction closes, CNB shareholders will own an estimated 15% of the combined company. Two CNB directors – Nancy Ruyle and CNB Bank Shares President Jim Ashworth – will join HBT’s board.
Ashworth said the partnership “marks an important milestone in our ongoing commitment to deliver exceptional service and value to our customers, employees and communities.”
“CNBN has always believed in the enduring strength of community banking, and joining HBT positions us to continue that mission with expanded capabilities and a broader foundation for future growth,” Ashworth said.
HBT, for what it’s worth, also reported its third-quarter earnings Monday – particularly, disclosing $19.8 million in profit over the three-month span. That’s up 8.8% from the same period one year earlier.
Purchasing CNB Bank will add $1.8 billion in assets, $1.5 billion in deposits and $1.3 billion in loans to HBT’s balance sheet.
CNB Bank CEO Andy Tinberg called the combination “a natural fit, as Heartland Bank shares our core values and unwavering commitment to the principles of community banking.”
“CNB Bank’s culture has consistently been centered on relationships,” Tinberg said. “We know customers personally, support local businesses, and are actively involved in our communities.”
Those communities, for HBT, are set to stretch from the Chicago area – where it already counts three locations – to St. Louis’ western suburbs.
