Univest Corporation Enters Philadelphia Through Strategic Acquisition of Valley Green

Situation
Univest Corporation of Pennsylvania (NASDAQ: UVSP), a $2.2 billion in assets community banking and financial services company serving customers through 40 locations in Lehigh, Bucks and Montgomery Counties, sought to expand its geographic footprint by entering Philadelphia, the nation’s fifth most populous city and the largest in Pennsylvania.

Solution
Recognizing the rare opportunity to acquire a community bank with best-in-class growth, profitability and asset quality located in an attractive, but highly competitive major metropolitan market, Univest seized the opportunity presented by Valley Green.

Griffin was engaged by Univest to advise on and execute the transaction and to provide a fairness opinion relating to the merger consideration.

Measures of Success
The merger of Valley Green with Univest expands Univest’s branch network southward into Philadelphia County. The locations, growth, asset quality and additional size and scale afforded to Univest by this acquisition further enable the company to create meaningful value for its shareholders and for the communities of Southeastern Pennsylvania.

The purchase price represents 14.7 times last 12 months’ earnings and 225% of tangible book value at announcement. The transaction is accretive to earnings in the first year and has an internal rate of return of approximately 20%.