Southcoast Financial Corp., the Mount Pleasant parent of Southcoast Community Bank, has agreed to be acquired by BNC Bancorp of High Point, North Carolina, in a stock deal valued at about $95.5 million.

The companies announced the definitive agreement today. Both boards have approved it, according to BNC’s news release.

Southcoast shareholders would receive $13.35 a share, paid in BNC stock. The release bases the $95.5 million value on BNC’s closing price Thursday. An investor presentation BNC filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission put the premium over Southcoast’s market price of $9.05 at 48.6%, using BNC’s 20-day average stock price of $22.17.

The number of BNC shares each Southcoast share converts into will depend on BNC’s 20-day volume-weighted average stock price before closing, within limits. If that average is $19 or less, each Southcoast share becomes 0.7026 of a BNC share. If it is $22 or more, each becomes 0.6068 of a share.

“This partnership will allow us to expand our presence in one of the fastest growing and most dynamic regions in the Southeast, the Charleston and Mt. Pleasant, South Carolina markets,” said Rick Callicutt, BNC’s president and CEO.

A 1998 startup

Southcoast Community Bank opened in July 1998, according to Southcoast’s annual report. L. Wayne Pearson has been its chairman and CEO since its organization. The bank’s main office is on Johnnie Dodds Boulevard in Mount Pleasant, and it had 89 full-time employees in March.

It operates 10 branches in Mount Pleasant, Charleston, Moncks Corner, Johns Island, Summerville, Goose Creek and North Charleston. At June 30, Southcoast had about $506 million in assets, $383 million in loans and $361 million in deposits.

Southcoast held 3.31% of the Charleston-North Charleston area’s $10.4 billion in deposits as of June 30, 2014, its annual report says. Thirty-two banks and savings institutions with 209 branches competed in the market.

Southcoast earned $873,000 in the second quarter, up from $709,000 a year earlier. Its nonperforming assets fell to 1.68% of total assets from 2.76%, the company reported in July.

“Our combination with BNC, with combined total assets of approximately $6.0 billion, will provide greater capital resources and operational scale that will allow us to grow with the robust Charleston and Mt. Pleasant economies and capture additional market share,” Pearson said in the release.

BNC’s Charleston push

BNC is the holding company for Bank of North Carolina, which has 57 offices in Virginia, North Carolina and South Carolina and more than $5 billion in assets. Its 12 South Carolina locations and nine Virginia locations operate as BNC Bank.

Southcoast would be BNC’s third Charleston-area deal. BNC entered the market in June 2012 with an FDIC-assisted purchase of the failed Carolina Federal Savings Bank and expanded with a deal for Harbor National Bank announced in June 2014, according to the presentation.

Callicutt said the combined Charleston operation would have about $800 million in assets and “a top-five deposit market share in the Charleston-North Charleston, SC MSA.” BNC’s presentation said its Charleston deposits would grow to about $640 million and that it would rank as the No. 2 community bank in the metro area.

“We are most excited about Wayne Pearson and his team joining BNC,” Callicutt said.

BNC is also buying seven CertusBank branches in the Upstate. Callicutt said the two deals would add about 17 South Carolina offices.

Savings and approvals

BNC expects to cut costs by 40% to 45% of Southcoast’s noninterest expense over the past 12 months, according to the presentation. It put transaction expenses at $7.3 million before taxes. The presentation said the cost savings would build on BNC’s earlier Harbor deal.

Southcoast shareholders would own about 10.2% of BNC after the merger. With Southcoast, BNC expects to have about $6.0 billion in assets, $4.5 billion in loans and $4.9 billion in deposits.

The deal needs approval from regulators and Southcoast shareholders. The companies expect it to close in the first quarter of 2016.