Suffolk, Virginia-based TowneBank’s $154 million acquisition of Mooresville, North Carolina-based Blueharbor Bank could make the Tar Heel State’s remaining banks more valuable.
Blueharbor had $628 million in assets, $537 million in loans, $551 million in deposits and five locations, as of June 30. The deal is expected to close in the first quarter of 2027, the banks said in a Tuesday news release.
The stock-and-cash deal is set to bolster $22.6 billion-asset TowneBank’s position in the Charlotte metro area and in towns north of the city, including Mooresville and Statesville, and it will add TowneBank’s resources to Blueharbor’s community bank lending and deposit relationships, the banks said.
TowneBank has about 70 locations across Hampton Roads and central Virginia, eastern and central North Carolina, the Greenville and upstate region of South Carolina, and Charleston, South Carolina. Blueharbor, founded in 2008, has branches in Mooresville, Statesville and Mount Airy, North Carolina, and loan production offices in Belmont and Hickory, North Carolina.
The proposed deal, priced at 2.2 times book value and a 17% gross deposit premium, offers “a friendly reminder that scarcity value is an important nuance of Bank M&A today and in the future,” Christopher Marinac with Brean Capital wrote in a Wednesday note.
Blueharbor’s acquisition leaves about 17 Federal Deposit Insurance Corp.-chartered banks in North Carolina with more than $500 million in assets, Marinac said.
That list ranges from Wilmington-based Live Oak Banking Company, with about $16 billion in assets, to Greensboro-based Triad Business bank, with $536 million in assets.
“The few remaining North Carolina banks are quite valuable in future quarters, thanks to scarcity of available targets,” he wrote.
An additional 18 banks in the state have less than $500 million in assets, as of June. The state’s bank charter headcount “is down significantly” from 303 charters domiciled in North Carolina in December 1999, Marinac wrote.
TowneBank closed on its $476 million acquisition of Raleigh-based Dogwood State Bank in January.
Blueharbor, a highly profitable bank with a low expense base, has about a 2.30% return on assets, interest-bearing deposit costs of 2.54% and total funding costs at 1.83%, Marinac said. The community bank reported 8% deposit growth in 2025 (minus brokered deposits) and 1% growth year-to-date in 2026, he wrote.
Blueharbor “has a long history of stellar performance along with an excellent reputation across the communities it serves,” G. Robert Aston Jr., TowneBank’s executive chairman, said in the release. “This partnership reflects TowneBank’s ongoing efforts to attract experienced banking talent and build meaningful growth markets.”
Post-deal close, Kelley Earnhardt Miller, Blueharbor’s board chair, will join TowneBank’s board, and Jim Marshall will become TowneBank’s Piedmont regional president.
TowneBank’s “commitment to community banking and serving others closely reflects our own,” Jim Marshall, Blueharbor’s president and CEO, said in the release. “Our customers will benefit from TowneBank’s broader range of products, services and technology while continuing to receive the local service they value.”
Blueharbor shareholders will receive $12.70 in cash and 1.0534 shares of TowneBank common stock for each Blueharbor share, for an implied value of $50.78 per share, based on TowneBank’s 10-day volume-weighted average share price of $36.15 as of Oct. 2, according to the release.
The consideration mix means about 75% of the transaction will be paid in TowneBank stock.
Also Tuesday, two Chicago-based banks, Byline Bancorp and Illinois State Bancorp, agreed to merge in a $87.9 million cash-and-stock deal. The combined lender will have 48 branches and $10.5 billion in assets, $8 billion in loans and $8.4 billion in deposits.
Illinois State Bancorp, with $617.3 million in assets, is the parent company of First Nations Bank and The Bank of Bourbonnais. That deal is also expected to close during the first quarter of 2027.
Roberto R. Herencia, executive chair and CEO of Byline Bancorp, said the acquisition “represents another meaningful step in Byline's growth strategy and further strengthens our position in the Chicago market.”
