Tribune staff reports

German American has announced it is merging River Valley Bancorp into the company.

River Valley Bank has a branch at 1725 E. Tipton St. in Seymour and another at 220 N. State St. in North Vernon.

Under terms of the agreement, River Valley common shareholders will receive .770 shares of German American common stock for each share of River Valley in a tax-free exchange, plus a cash payment of $9.90 per River Valley share.

Based on Madison-based River Valley’s number of outstanding common shares, German American expects to issue about 1.94 million shares of its common stock and pay about $25 million in cash for all of the issued and outstanding River Valley common shares and options.

On this basis, the transaction has an aggregate value of about $83.5 million. The basic transaction value includes about $500,000 in cash payments to be made in cancellation of stock options.

River Valley Bancorp operates 14 full-service banking offices, including another in Dupont in Jefferson County. The Seymour and North Vernon branches were part of Dupont State Bank until that firm was purchased by River Valley Bank on Nov. 9, 2012.

As of Sept. 30, River Valley reported $514 million in total assets, $330 million in total loans and $401 million in total deposits.

Jasper-based German American operates a branch in downtown Columbus and has three locations in Bedford. Before the purchase of River Valley Bank, German American had 37 offices in 13 Hoosier counties and more than 525 employees.