The parent company of SmartBank is buying the fourth biggest bank in Sevier County to become that county’s biggest bank and the fourth biggest banking firm headquartered in Tennessee.
In its eighth acquisition since its start in 2006, Smart Financial Inc. announced Wednesday it has agreed to buy Sevier County Bank in an all-stock purchase valued at $38.2 million. If approved by regulators and shareholders, the purchase should be completed in the third quarter of the year and boost SmartBank’s assets to more than $3.7 billion.
The conversion and rebrand of Sevier County Bank under the SmartBank name is expected in the fourth quarter, including consolidating four of the six branches that Sevier County Bank has in its home county into existing SmartBank branches in the area.
“We are pleased to partner with Sevier County Bank, which has a multi-generational history within our legacy footprint in East Tennessee and is a company that we have known and admired for years,” said Billy Carroll, SmartFinancial’s president and CEO. “This merger is reflective of our philosophy of partnering with banks that hold core values similar to our own and have a commitment to serving their local communities.”
Chattanoogan Miller Welborn, the chairman of SmartBank who helped engineer the merger of the former Cornerstone Bank in Chattanooga with SmartBank in 2014, said SmartBank expects to cut about 63% of annual non-interest expenses at Sevier County Bancshares, or $7.1 million.