The Southwest Ledger

Third Coast Bancshares, the Houston-based holding company for Third Coast Bank, agreed to acquire Great Plains Bancshares, the Oklahoma City parent of Great Plains National Bank, in an all-stock transaction valued at about $239.6 million. Great Plains National Bank held roughly $1.9 billion in assets as of June 30 and runs a 23-branch franchise across western Oklahoma, the Oklahoma City metro and North Texas. The combined company would hold about $9 billion in assets, and the deal is expected to close in the first quarter of 2027, subject to regulatory and shareholder approvals.

Mark Russell, Great Plains National Bank's chief executive, has agreed to continue in a leadership role after the closing, and two Great Plains representatives will join the boards of Third Coast Bancshares and Third Coast Bank.

A Texas bank acquiring a $1.9 billion Oklahoma franchise that already reaches into North Texas extends a single commercial-banking organization across both states the Ledger covers. For the bankers inside the acquired company, a change of control is the point at which reporting lines, credit authority and territory get redrawn, and it is the window in which lenders weigh whether the new structure still fits. An integration of this size is the kind of event that puts experienced Oklahoma and North Texas commercial bankers in play, whether or not they planned to move.

Pinnacle Bancorp, an Omaha-based, family-owned banking company with about $20.2 billion in assets and 164 branches across eight states, agreed to acquire Southern Bancshares, Inc., the parent company of SouthStar Bank. SouthStar, headquartered in Moulton, Texas, has about $1.35 billion in assets and operates 16 full-service locations plus a loan production office in Austin, across central Texas markets that include Austin, Georgetown, Round Rock, Leander, Kerrville and Gonzales. Terms were not disclosed, and the transaction is expected to close in January 2027, subject to regulatory approval.

An out-of-state acquirer taking on a central Texas bank with an Austin-area footprint puts a larger balance sheet behind a book of local commercial relationships. As with any acquisition, the integration is when reporting lines and lending authority get reset, and it is the period in which the acquired bank's commercial lenders weigh whether to stay through the transition. Central Texas commercial bankers who carry local books are a competed-for group, and a change of control is one of the events that puts them in play.

First Bank Texas named Michael Ramirez its Fort Worth market president, a role in which he will help lead the bank's growth in the Fort Worth market. Ramirez brings more than 20 years of banking experience, with expertise in commercial real estate lending, relationship management and portfolio management. He has served on the board of commissioners for Fort Worth Housing Solutions since 2012 and is a member of the Greater Fort Worth Real Estate Council.

A market-president appointment is the level at which a bank organizes its commercial coverage across a metro. Fort Worth sits inside the deepest and most contested banking talent market in Texas, where community banks recruit against super-regionals for the same commercial relationship managers and credit officers. With the seat filled, Ramirez is the senior name those commercial relationships now run through.