Guaranty Bank wraps $4.6M acquisition of Hometown Bancshares

Shaun Burke: Guaranty Bank now has an 18-branch footprint in southwest Missouri.

Guaranty Federal Bancshares Inc. (Nasdaq: GFED) has finalized its acquisition of Carthage-based Hometown Bancshares Inc. for $4.6 million in cash.

Through the merger, Guaranty Federal Bancshares now operates two wholly owned subsidiaries – Guaranty Bank and Hometown Bank, National Association – with total assets now of roughly $980 million, according to a news release. In the deal, each share of Hometown common stock was converted to $20 in cash, the release said.

The merger is the first full-bank acquisition for the Springfield-based holding company for Guaranty Bank, which as a result, expanded into Newton and McDonald counties. Hometown Bank has seven branches: two apiece in Carthage and Joplin, and one each in Neosho, Oronogo and Pineville. Guaranty officials say they plan to keep them all open.

Guaranty Bank now operates 18 full-service branches. It already had locations in Green, Christian and Jasper counties, as well as a loan production office in Webster County. It opened its 11th Guaranty branch in November 2017 at Farmers Park.

“We are very pleased to announce the completion of the Hometown Bancshares acquisition and to welcome our new teammates to Guaranty Bank,” Shaun Burke, company president and CEO, said in the release. “We look forward to growing relationships with the current Hometown customers and to serving many new customers across our 18-branch footprint in southwest Missouri.”

GFED shares were trading at $23.50 as of 9 a.m., just below a 52-week high of $23.71. The bank stock’s 52-week low is $15.89 per share.