Headquartered in Hattiesburg, Mississippi, The First Bancshares, Inc. (NASDAQ: FBMS) (“The First” or “the company”) is the BHC for its main subsidiary, The First Bank, which was founded in 1996. FBMS’ operating footprint of 115 branches stretches throughout select markets in Mississippi, Louisiana, Alabama, Florida, and Georgia.
The First expanded its presence outside of its legacy Mississippi markets primarily through an active M&A strategy. Most recently, FBMS completed mergers with Fort Walton Beach, FL based Beach Bancorp, Inc. (BBI) in August of 2022, adding ~$610 million in assets, and Heritage Southeast Bancorporation (HSBI) based out of Jonesboro, GA in January of 2023, adding ~$1.6 billion in assets. The latter represented the company’s largest acquisition to date.
FBMS is a commercially oriented bank, though the loan mix is relatively diverse with no material credit concentrations. At 4Q23, 39% of the loan mix was represented by owner-occupied CRE / C&I…
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