First Busey Corporation (“Busey”) (NASDAQ: BUSE), the holding company for Busey Bank, announced today the completion of its acquisition by merger of CrossFirst Bankshares, Inc. (“CrossFirst”) (NASDAQ: CFB), the holding company for CrossFirst Bank, effective March 1, 2025. The transaction was previously jointly announced on August 27, 2024.
Busey will operate CrossFirst Bank as a separate banking subsidiary of Busey until it is merged with Busey Bank, which is expected to occur in June 2025. At the time of the bank merger, CrossFirst Bank’s banking centers will become branches of Busey Bank and operate under the Busey brand, creating a premier full-service commercial bank serving clients from 77 locations across 10 states with combined total assets of approximately $20 billion, $17 billion in total deposits, $15 billion in total loans and $14 billion in wealth assets under care. The holding company will be headquartered in Leawood, Kansas in the Kansas City metro area, which is central to the combined footprint. Busey Bank’s headquarters will remain in Champaign, Illinois.
The combination extends Busey’s regional operating model into high-growth metro markets—bolstering its commercial banking relationships and offering additional opportunities to grow its wealth management business and payment technology solutions subsidiary, FirsTech, Inc.
“This is a transformational partnership that advances our organization and will ultimately benefit each of our Pillars—associates, customers, communities and shareholders,” said Van Dukeman, Chairman and CEO of Busey and Chairman of Busey Bank. “Over the past few years, we have been keenly focused on maintaining Busey’s fortress balance sheet—featuring exceptional credit quality, strong liquidity, excess capital and diversified revenue streams buttressed by our wealth management and payments processing businesses—to be well positioned to capitalize on a financially and strategically compelling opportunity of size and scale. This is that opportunity and we look forward to fully integrating our banks while leveraging the talent, expertise, increased scale and market presence to benefit our Pillars.”
“Taking our organization to new heights, this partnership combines our growing commercial bank with the power of Busey’s core deposit franchise, exceptional wealth management platform and the impressive payment tech solutions at FirsTech, Inc.,” said Mike Maddox, former CrossFirst CEO, President and Director who now serves as Vice Chairman and President of Busey and President and CEO of Busey Bank. “We firmly believe our strong metro market footprint, commercial focus and growth potential will help elevate the combined company to be a leading regional banking institution throughout the Midwest and Southwestern regions of the U.S. We look forward to building upon the strong legacy of outstanding service and community engagement that both organizations have developed to create even more opportunities for our teams and clients.”
Board of Directors
Effective immediately, Busey and Busey Bank will be governed by a Board of Directors comprised of 13 directors, eight from Busey or Busey Bank and five from CrossFirst:
- Van Dukeman, Chairman and CEO
- Mike Maddox, Vice Chairman and President
- Rod Brenneman, Lead Independent Director
- Stan Bradshaw
- Steve Caple
- Michael Cassens
- Jennifer Grigsby
- Karen Jensen
- Fred Kenney
- Steve King
- Kevin Rauckman
- Scott Wehrli
- Tiffany White
Transaction Details
Under the terms of the merger agreement, at the effective time of the merger on March 1, 2025, each share of CrossFirst’s common stock was converted into the right to receive 0.6675 of a share of Busey common stock, with CrossFirst shareholders receiving cash in lieu of fractional shares. Former CrossFirst common shareholders are eligible to receive Busey’s ongoing dividends as declared. With the transaction now complete, former CrossFirst shareholders own approximately 36.5% of the combined company, on a fully-diluted basis.
Shares of CrossFirst common stock ceased trading after the closing of the NASDAQ stock market on February 28, 2025. The combined company’s common shares will continue trading on the NASDAQ under the “BUSE” ticker symbol.
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