News

BancorpSouth, Inc. announced today the consummation of a previously announced merger agreement with Ramsey, Krug, Farrell & Lensing, Inc. (RKF&L) of Little Rock, Ark., one of Arkansas' leading insurance firms.

BancorpSouth Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Aubrey Patterson said, "We are pleased to finalize our merger and to enter the Arkansas insurance market with such a significant business partner."

Jim Kelley, BancorpSouth President and Chief Operating Officer, said, "Our new partnership enhances BancorpSouth's ability to provide our Arkansas customers with a complete line of financial services."

RKF&L President Tim Farrell said, "This merger solves some regional expansion and equity perpetuation issues that we had and will assure our clients and staff continued opportunities. The people at BancorpSouth share our values and vision."

RKF&L was founded in 1980 with roots going back to 1932. It currently has 100 employees at its Cantrell Road offices. RKF&L is a full-service insurance agency with specialties in construction and surety, professional liability and self-insured risk management services.

Headquartered in Tupelo, Miss., BancorpSouth operates approximately 250 commercial banking, insurance, trust, broker/dealer and consumer finance locations in Alabama, Arkansas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Tennessee and Texas with a staff of approximately 3,800 full-time employees. BancorpSouth and its subsidiaries provide, in addition to traditional banking services, mortgage origination and servicing, leasing, credit cards, consumer finance services, trust and fiduciary services, brokerage and investment services and insurance services.

Forward-Looking Statements

Certain statements contained in this news release may not be based on historical facts and are "forward-looking statements" within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933, as amended, and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended. These forward-looking statements may be identified by their reference to a future period or periods or by the use of forward-looking terminology such as "anticipate," "believe," "estimate," "expect," "may," "might," "will," "would," "could," or "intend." These forward-looking statements include, without limitation, those relating to the effects of the merger with RKF&L, the operation of RKF&L after the acquisition, products and services.

We caution you not to place undue reliance on forward-looking statements contained in this news release in that actual results could differ materially from those indicated in such forward-looking statements, due to a variety of factors. Those factors include, but are not limited to, inability to successfully integrate the companies after the merger, materially adverse changes in the companies' financial conditions, changes in economic conditions and government fiscal and monetary policies, fluctuations in prevailing interest rates, changes in laws and regulations affecting financial institutions in general, possible adverse rulings, judgments, settlements and other outcomes of pending litigation, the ability of BancorpSouth to compete with other financial services companies, the ability of BancorpSouth to provide competitive services and products, changes in BancorpSouth's operating or expansion strategy, geographic concentration of BancorpSouth's assets, the ability of BancorpSouth to attract, train and retain qualified personnel, the ability of BancorpSouth to effectively market its services and products, other factors generally understood to affect the financial results of financial services companies and other factors described from time to time in BancorpSouth's filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. We undertake no obligation to update these forward-looking statements to reflect events or circumstances that occur after the date on which such statements were made.

SOURCE: BancorpSouth, Inc.