MAPLE GLEN, PA-Locally based Willow Grove Bancorp has completed its $152.5-million acquisition of Downingtown, PA-based Chester Valley Bancorp. Chester Valley, which operated 13 First Financial Bank branches, now operates as the First Financial division of Willow Grove Bank.
The combined companies now operate a total of 27 branches in Montgomery, Chester, Bucks, Delaware and Philadelphia counties. This creates what was described when the agreement was struck this January as "a crescent-shaped footprint surrounding Philadelphia." The financial institution resulting from the merger has approximately $1.5 billion in assets and deposits in excess of $1 billion. Donna M. Coughey, former president and CEO of Chester Valley, takes those posts with Willow Grove, succeeding Frederick Marcell Jr., who has retired.
Each share of Chester Valley common stock has been converted into a right to receive either $27.90 in cash or nearly 1.5 shares of Willow Grove common stock. Under terms of the merger agreement, this is subject to an allocation that will ensure that approximately two thirds of the outstanding Chester Valley shares will be traded for Willow Grove stock and one third will be exchanged for cash. Approximately five million shares of Willow Grove common stock will be issued in the transaction, bringing the number of issued and outstanding Willow Grove shares to about 14.7 million. At mid-day Sept. 1, shares of Willow Grove stock, which trades as WGBC, were trading at $15.12 a share.
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