Company: FRME
Filing Date: 2025-11-06
Form Type: 424B3
Source: 0001193125-25-268801
Chunk: 64

Company: FIRST MERCHANTS CORP
Filing Date: 2025-11-06
Form: 424B3
Chunk 64
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 in southern Indiana; (ii) will 
 increase First Merchants’ core deposit base, an important funding source; (iii) will provide First Merchants with an experienced management team and quality bank branches in and around southern Indiana; and (iv) will provide First    
 Merchants with the opportunity to sell First Merchants’ broad array of products to First Savings’ client base;                                                                                                                            |

| • |     | its understanding of the current and prospective environment in which First Merchants and First Savings operate,                                                                                                              
 including national and local economic conditions, the competitive environment for financial institutions generally, and the likely effect of these factors on First Merchants both with and without the proposed transaction; |

| • |     | its review and discussions with First Merchants’ management concerning the due diligence examination of 
 First Savings;                                                                                          |

| • |     | the complementary nature of the cultures of the two companies, which management believes should facilitate 
 integration and implementation of the proposed transaction;                                                |

| • |     | the financial and other terms of the Merger Agreement, including the fixed Exchange Ratio, tax treatment, and    
 deal protection and termination fee provisions, which it reviewed with its outside financial and legal advisors; |

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| • |     | the potential risk of diverting management attention and resources from the operation of First Merchants’ 
 business towards the completion of the Merger; and                                                        |

| • |     | the regulatory and other approvals required in connection with the Merger and the expectation that such         
 regulatory approvals will be received in a timely manner and without the imposition of unacceptable conditions. |

The foregoing discussion of the information and factors considered by the First Merchants Board of Directors is not intended to be exhaustive, but includes the material factors considered by the First Merchants Board of Directors. In reaching its decision to approve and adopt the Merger Agreement, the Merger and the other transactions contemplated by the Merger Agreement, the First Merchants Board of Directors did not quantify or assign any relative weights to the factors considered, and individual directors may have given different weights to different factors. The First Merchants Board of Directors considered all these factors as a whole, including discussions with, and questioning of, First Merchants’ management and First Merchants’ financial and legal advisors, and overall considered the factors to be favorable to, and to support, its determination. For the reasons set forth above, the First Merchants Board of Directors unanimously determined that the Merger Agreement and the transactions contemplated by the Merger Agreement are advisable and in