Richmond-based First Market Bank, majority-owned by Ukrop’s Super Markets Inc. and members of the Ukrop family, will merge into Union Bankshares Corp. in a $105 million deal, the two banks announced this morning.
“This is a merger that doesn’t just bring these banks together,” said James E. Ukrop, chairman of First Market. “It brings together the spirit of community banking.”
The bank holding company, to be renamed Union First Market Bankshares Corp., will move its headquarters to Richmond. Union Bankshares, a publicly traded company is now based in Bowling Green.
The deal is expected to close by the end of the year, pending regulatory and shareholder approval.
Mayor Dwight C. Jones, in a statement read at a press conference about the merger in the recently opened Miller & Rhoads Hilton Garden Inn, said the merger is encouraging news during a time of national economic distress and uncertainty.
First Market, a privately-held company whose other owners is specialty insurer Markel Corp., operates 39 branches in the Richmond area -- most inside Ukrop's stores. It has about $1.3 billion in assets.
The combined bank will become the largest Virginia-based community banking organization with 97 branches and assets of more than $3.9 billion.
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