Unassociated Document
Filing
under Rule 425 under the Securities Act of 1933
Filing
by: German American Bancorp, Inc.
Subject
Company: American Community Bancorp, Inc.
File
No. 000-50946
On October 22, 2010, German
American Bancorp, Inc., publicly furnished the following information in a
Current Report on Form 8-K of German American Bancorp, Inc., that was received
that date by the Securities and Exchange Commission.
As
previously announced, German American Bancorp, Inc., an Indiana corporation
(“German American”) and American Community Bancorp, Inc., an Indiana corporation
(“American Community”), entered into an Agreement and Plan of Reorganization
dated October 4, 2010 (“merger agreement”) pursuant to which American Community
agreed to merge with and into German American (the “merger”). The merger
agreement provides that American Community’s wholly-owned banking subsidiary,
Bank of Evansville, will be merged with and into German American’s wholly-owned
banking subsidiary, German American Bancorp, immediately following the
merger.
American
Community, through its wholly owned subsidiary, Bank of Evansville, provides a
full range of commercial and consumer banking services in the Evansville,
Indiana, area, from three banking offices located on the east, west and north
sides of the city. At June 30, 2010, American Community reported
total assets of approximately $312 million, total loans of approximately $246
million, and total deposits of approximately $269 million.
German
American beneficially owns 199,939 shares of American Community’s outstanding
common stock, which represents approximately 9.2% of American Community’s
presently outstanding common stock.
Under the
terms of the merger agreement, American Community common shareholders (other
than German American in respect of its American Community shares) will (assuming
that the merger transaction is completed in accordance with the terms and
conditions of the Agreement) receive 0.725 shares of German American common
stock for each of their shares of American Community common stock in a tax free
exchange, plus a cash payment of $2.00 per American Community
share.
German
American filed, on October 21, 2010, a Registration Statement on Form S-4 with
the Securities and Exchange Commission (File No. 333-170068) that includes a
preliminary proxy statement of American Community (which also constitutes a
preliminary prospectus of German American) and other relevant documents
concerning the proposed merger. SHAREHOLDERS ARE URGED TO READ THE
PROXY STATEMENT/PROSPECTUS REGARDING THE PROPOSED TRANSACTION BECAUSE IT
CONTAINS IMPORTANT INFORMATION. You are able to obtain a copy of the
current preliminary version of the proxy statement/prospectus, as well as future
revised versions of the preliminary proxy statement/prospectus and the final
proxy statement/prospectus, and other filings containing information about
German American, without charge, at the Securities and Exchange Commission’s
website (http://www.sec.gov). Copies of each version of the proxy
statement/prospectus and the filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission
that are or will be incorporated by reference in the proxy statement/prospectus
can also be obtained, without charge, by directing a request to Terri A.
Eckerle, Shareholder Relations, German American Bancorp, Inc., 711 Main Street,
Box 810, Jasper, Indiana 47546, telephone 812-482-1314 or John Schenk, Chief
Financial Officer, American Community Bancorp, Inc., 4424 Vogel Road,
Evansville, Indiana, 47715, telephone 812-962-2265.
The
preliminary proxy statement/prospectus included in the above-described
Registration Statement (the “Registration Statement”) includes unaudited pro
forma condensed combined financial statements and other unaudited pro forma
information (which statements and other information we refer to in this report
collectively as the “Pro Forma Information”). The Pro Forma
Information presents data reflecting the results of operations and financial
condition of German American and American Community, both historical and pro
forma (as if they had been combined together on the terms of the merger
agreement as of certain earlier dates). As stated by the narrative
introduction in the preliminary proxy statement/prospectus to the pro forma
condensed combined financial statements that are included in the Pro Forma
Information, the Pro Forma Information is presented in the proxy
statement/prospectus for illustrative purposes only. Further, such
Pro Forma Information reflects certain allocations of purchase price that will
be required to be made by German American upon completion of the business
combination under the acquisition method of accounting under market, economic
and other conditions that then prevail, which allocations are dependent upon
certain valuation and other studies that are not yet final, and reflects certain
assumed valuations of German American’s common shares that will form the
principal part of the purchase price, which is also subject to change before the
completion of the merger. Therefore, the Pro Forma Information
reflects preliminary allocations of purchase price (which itself is subject to
material change) to acquired assets and assumed liabilities of American
Community (which allocations are subject to change), and those changes could be
material to the Pro Forma Information and to the future results of operations
and financial condition of German American.
Further,
the Pro Forma Information has been prepared in accordance with the regulations
of the SEC for such types of pro forma financial information, and is not
intended to represent, and is not necessarily indicative of, (a) the financial
condition or results of operations of future periods or the financial condition
or results of operations that actually would have been realized had the entities
been a single company during the periods presented or (b) the results that the
combined company will experience after the merger is
completed. Among other important issues that may impact the
future financial condition or results of operation of the combined company,
positively or negatively (and which are not reflected by the adjustments made to
present the Pro Forma Financial Information) are:
• factors
of the types described below under “CAUTIONARY NOTE REGARDING FORWARD-LOOKING
STATEMENTS;”
• any
revenue enhancement opportunities and other synergies that German American may
anticipate will be of benefit to the combined company;
• operating
efficiencies or other cost savings that may result from combining the two
entities and integrating their general operations and
administration;
• costs
of integration that the combined company may experience; or
• any
“dissynergies” that could result from the combination.
To
provide additional information to investors beyond that which is provided by the
Pro Forma Information, German American is providing this Regulation FD
disclosure under this Item 7.01 to disclose its current expectations regarding
certain additional financial information pertaining to the combination of
American Community with German American on a projected (forward-looking) basis
that German American has assumed for purposes of constructing its own business
and financial models relating to the proposed merger. German American
currently anticipates (although its expectations in these regards may be
materially affected by factors of the types described by “CAUTIONARY NOTE
REGARDING FORWARD-LOOKING STATEMENTS”) that German American will
likely:
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incur
expenses for one-time merger-related costs of approximately $2.2 million,
consisting primarily of lump sum change of control premiums and transition
bonus payments, merger-related professional fees, and computer system
conversion expenses;
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record
a gain of just under $1.0 million at closing as a result of the absorption
of German American's existing 9.2% ownership position in the outstanding
common shares of American
Community;
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realize
(following a transition period) cost savings on an ongoing annualized
basis equal to approximately 30% of American Community's current level of
non-interest expenses (approximately half of the annualized projected
costs savings are expected to be realized, on average, during the first 12
months following the closing, as the majority of the projected cost
savings aren’t expected to be realized during the six months following the
closing);
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record
on its balance sheet an additional amount of “core deposit intangible”
asset (an intangible asset that represents the fair value to German
American of the core deposit relationships that it purchases when it
assumes the deposit relationships of another depository institution, like
in this merger), which addition attributable to American Community is
presently estimated to be approximately $3.4 million, and which additional
amount will be amortized on an accelerated basis over ten years from the
date of completion of the merger for aggregate amortization expense over
that period (after tax) of approximately $2.0
million;
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record
on its balance sheet additional goodwill, which, based on initial
projections, German American expects to be in the amount of approximately
$8.7 million; and
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value
American Community’s loan portfolio on German American’s balance sheet by
recording a total market value adjustment of approximately 4% on the
acquired loan, including a credit mark of approximately
3.5%.
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On the
basis of its modeling, and giving effect to (a) the assumptions briefly
summarized above and other assumptions (all of which are forward-looking and
subject to risks and uncertainties of the types described below under
“CAUTIONARY NOTE REGARDING FORWARD-LOOKING STATEMENTS”), (b) projected pre-tax
net interest income improvements of approximately $0.5 million to $1.0 million
annually resulting from projected deposit pricing strategies, and (c) the
adjustments reflected in the Pro Forma Information, German American anticipates
that its combination with American Community will be:
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slightly
accretive (ignoring the one-time expenses for merger-related costs and the
one-time gain on German American’s existing ownership position in American
Community) to German American’s earnings per share during the 12 months
following completion of the transaction,
and
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accretive
to German American’s earnings per share by approximately $0.10 to $0.12,
following the initial 12-month transition
period.
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These
projected earnings improvements do not rely upon any revenue-enhancement
strategies other than the projected increased net interest income resulting from
the deposit pricing strategies referred to above.
CAUTIONARY
NOTE REGARDING FORWARD-LOOKING STATEMENTS
Certain
statements contained in this report constitute forward-looking statements within
the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of
1995. You can identify forward-looking statements by words such as
“may,” “hope,” “will,” “should,” “expect,” “plan,” “anticipate,” “intend,”
“believe,” “estimate,” “predict,” “potential,” “continue,” “could,” “future” or
the negative of those terms or other words of similar meaning. You
should read statements that contain these words carefully because they discuss
German American’s future expectations or state other “forward-looking”
information. These forward-looking statements include, but are not
limited to, statements relating to:
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the
anticipated consummation of the merger transaction and the expected
effects of the transaction;
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the
anticipated results of applying the acquisition method of accounting to
the merger, including the anticipated valuation of the purchase price to
be paid (principally in the form of German American common shares) for
American Community, and the anticipated valuations for the assets and
liabilities to be purchased or assumed by German American in the merger
transaction, including the loans and other identifiable assets (including
identifiable intangible assets) and the goodwill that may result from such
merger transaction for German
American;
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the
amounts of anticipated one-time charges and gains that may be recorded by
German American as a result of the merger;
and
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·
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the
amounts by which the net income per share of German American may increase
due to the combination with American Community in future periods and
related cost-savings steps taken by German American, if the assumptions
upon which German American’s modeling of the merger prove to be
substantially accurate.
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Forward-looking
statements encompass any estimate, prediction, expectation, projection, opinion,
anticipation, outlook or statement of belief included therein as well as
management’s assumptions underlying these forward-looking
statements. Should any such underlying assumptions prove to be
significantly different than expected, German American’s actual performance,
financial condition, and experiences (including the actual results relating to
or resulting from the merger with American Community, including but not limited
to that merger’s anticipated accretive effect on German American’s earnings per
share) may vary (which variance may be material and adverse) from those
anticipated, estimated, projected or expected.
You
should be aware that the occurrence of the events or circumstances described
under the caption “Risk Factors” in German American’s filings with the
Securities and Exchange Commission (see, for example, the disclosures under that
caption in the proxy statement/prospectus included in the Registration Statement
identified above, and the disclosures in Item 1A of German American’s annual
report on Form 10-K for its year ended December 31, 2009 and in the quarterly
reports for subsequent periods) could have an adverse effect on German
American’s business, results of operations and financial condition, regardless
of whether it completes its proposed transaction with American
Community.
In
addition, German American is subject to risks that relate specifically to the
proposed transaction with American Community that could cause its actual results
to differ materially from current expectations of management, including, but not
limited to, the risks that:
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German
American might not succeed in obtaining the required regulatory approvals
(or burdensome conditions might be imposed on German American by the
regulatory agencies as a condition of such approvals), or American
Community’s shareholders might not approve the merger, or other conditions
specified by the merger agreement might not be satisfied, any of which
would result in the transaction not being
completed;
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American
Community's operations may not be integrated successfully into German
American's operations or such integration may be more difficult,
time-consuming or costly than expected, including possible disruption of
employee or customer relationships that could result in decreased revenues
if such disruption results in loss of
customers;
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the
expected cost savings from the transaction may not be fully realized or
realized within the expected
timeframe;
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the
projected net interest income improvement might not be realized, in part
or in whole, due to possible market factors that could dictate that German
American delay or alter projected deposit pricing
strategies;
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the
relative proportions of the consideration actually paid by German American
in the merger transaction (that is, the amount of cash paid as compared to
the amount of German American stock issued) may vary from the relative
proportions assumed for modeling purposes, due to the potential for
exercises of dilutive options or warrants to purchase American Community
shares prior to the completion of the merger and the potential for
shareholders of American Community to exercise statutory dissenters
rights, resulting in possible material changes (including
possible material adverse changes) in German American’s actual future
results of operations compared to those projected by it under its models;
and
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the
final valuations for accounting purposes under the acquisition method of
accounting may differ materially from the preliminary valuations assumed
by management’s models, and such valuation differences may result in
material changes (including possible material adverse changes)
in German American’s actual future results of operations compared to those
projected by it under its models, due to differences in valuations of
items such as (but not limited to):
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the
shares of German American to be issued in the merger (since the market
value of German American’s shares based on NASDAQ market data
may vary at the time of completion of the merger from the
recent market values of German American’s shares that prevailed at the
time that the models were constructed),
and/or
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American
Community’s loans, core deposit customer relationships, and other
identifiable assets acquired by (or of American Community’s liabilities
assumed by) German American in the merger, all of which may vary on
account of multiple factors at the time of closing compared to the
preliminary valuation estimates upon which the models were
based.
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Although
we believe that the expectations reflected in our forward-looking statements are
reasonable, we can give no assurance that such expectations will prove to be
correct. Except as required by law, we undertake no obligation to update or
revise any of this information, whether as the result of new information, future
events or developments or otherwise.