Happy State Bank Receives Approval for Centennial Bank Acquisition

AMARILLO, TX – In a joint statement, Mikel Williamson, President &CEO of Happy State Bank and Gregg Appel, CEO of Centennial Bank announced that regulatory approval has been received by the Texas Department of Banking and FDIC for Happy Bancshares, Inc. to purchase and assume operations of Lubbock-based Centennial Bank and its holding company Commerce Bancshares, Inc. which will become part of Happy State Bank.

“Good things are worth the wait,” said Williamson. “We’ve been working with Centennial Bank for some time to close this deal and we’re Happy to finally put dates to the process and move forward. The merger will close on July 1, and at that time we will have 58 locations in 41 Texas communities and combined assets of approximately $5 billion. We have always thought Centennial would be a good fit for Happy State Bank’s growth plans in terms of culture and locations.”

Centennial Bank currently operates in 14 locations including Texas’ fastest growing region, the Texas Hill Country.

“Working closely together over the past several months has confirmed what we already knew,” said Appel. “These are two great organizations built on a shared foundation of strong values, great people, with a passion for serving our communities. Our customers will continue banking with their favorite bankers, and will love the “Happy” banking experience. We will be stronger together and better equipped to serve our customers during these challenging times.”

Williamson added, “We will initially be operating both banks as separate entities until we complete our core systems conversion in early November. So Centennial customers will continue to do business with their current branches and Happy customers will do the same until our conversion in the 4th quarter.”