Dive Brief:

• Conway, Arkansas-based Home BancShares will acquire Knoxville, Tennessee-based Mountain Commerce Bancorp in a $150.1 million all-stock deal that’s expected to close early in the first half of 2026, the companies said Monday.
• The transaction will give Home BancShares’ subsidiary, Centennial Bank, entry to Tennessee for the first time and create an entity with roughly $25 billion in assets, $19.2 billion in deposits and $17 billion in loans.
• Home BancShares disclosed in October that it had signed a letter of intent to buy a bank but did not name it. In an interview last month with American Banker, the bank’s CEO, John Allison, stayed mum on the name but called the target a “good bank [with] good people” in “good markets” but that it had “problems” with unrealized losses on its balance sheet.

Dive Insight:

Centennial Bank counts branches in Arkansas, Texas, Florida, southern Alabama and New York City. The Mountain Commerce deal would give it seven new locations: four in the Tri-Cities area that encompasses Johnson City, Bristol and Kingsport (with a fifth slated to open by March), two around Knoxville and one in a Nashville suburb.

“We look forward to being in these vibrant Tennessee markets,” Allison said in a statement. “We waited patiently to make our next acquisition to ensure we partnered up with a good quality bank in a strong market, and I am extremely pleased about what the future holds for HOMB and MCBI in the Volunteer State.”

Home BancShares is a fairly frequent buyer – though its last acquisition, of Lubbock, Texas-based Happy State Bank in 2022, saw asset quality woes at the selling bank.

At a conference in Nashville last month, Allison said he met with HoldCo Asset Management representatives and offered to serve as a buyer if the activist investor voiced issues with a lender in Home BancShares’ footprint. HoldCo this summer pushed Dallas-based Comerica to sell, then sued the bank after it did, claiming it could have gotten a better deal. The company most recently demanded management changes at KeyBank.

As part of Monday’s deal, Mountain Commerce shareholders will receive 0.85 shares of Home BancShares stock for each share they own. The transaction’s $150.1 million value stems from a volume-weighted average closing price per share of $27.66 for Home BancShares stock during the 20-trading-day span ending Friday. The deal implies a consideration value of $23.51 per share.

“Mountain Commerce is proud to join forces with one of the top-performing banks in the country,” the bank’s founder and CEO, Bill Edwards III, said in a statement. “This partnership provides resources, through HOMB’s strong balance sheet and capital position, to allow our talented team of bankers to flourish. There is a lot more work to be done in Tennessee to take advantage of the market opportunity and we are eager and ready to grow.”

By its own description, Mountain Commerce says it focuses on “responsive relationship banking of small and medium-sized businesses, professionals [and] affluent individuals.”

Home BancShares expects the deal to boost earnings per share by 1.4% for 2026 and 3% for 2027 and increase book value per share by 0.7% and tangible book value per share by 0.2%, the lender said.