Community Banks Buys PennRock for $326M

HARRISBURG, PA-Community Banks Inc. signed an agreement to acquire PennRock Financial Services Corp. in an all-stock transaction valued at approximately $326 million. This will make locally based Community Banks the eighth largest bank holding company headquartered in Pennsylvania and the operator of 67 banking offices in 11 counties throughout Central Pennsylvania from the Pocono region to the north and the Pennsylvania/Maryland border to the south. One branch is across the border in Maryland.

There is no market overlap and both companies’ branches are in high-growth areas. Of chief significance, says Eddie L. Dunklebarger, Community Banks’ president and CEO, is the combined companies’ “significant presence in the golden triangle of Harrisburg, Lancaster and York, PA.”

Blue Ball-based PennRock operates 17 offices–10 in Lancaster County, five in Berks and two in Chester. Three more are scheduled to open within the next seven months. All will continue to operate as Blue Ball National Bank, which will become a separate division under Community Banks’ charter.