On January 30, 2017, First Guaranty Bancshares, Inc. (“First Guaranty”), Hammond, Louisiana, and Premier Bancshares, Inc. (“Premier”), McKinney, Texas, entered into a definitive merger agreement pursuant to which Premier will merge with and into First Guaranty, with First Guaranty as the resulting company, for total merger consideration of approximately $21.0 million.  The aggregate consideration paid to stockholders of Premier will be 50% in First Guaranty stock and 50% in cash. As part of the merger, Synergy Bank, S.S.B., the subsidiary of Premier, will merge with and into First Guaranty Bank, the subsidiary of First Guaranty.

Luse Gorman served as legal counsel to First Guaranty in the transaction. The Luse Gorman team was led by Benjamin Azoff, (Corporate/M&A), Gregory Sobczak (Corporate/M&A), and Jeffrey Cardone (Executive Compensation).

First Guaranty has approximately $1.5 billion in total assets and operates 21 banking offices throughout Louisiana.

Premier has approximately $153 million in total assets and operates 5 banking offices across Texas.