Company: FRME
Filing Date: 2025-10-17
Form Type: S-4/A
Source: 0001193125-25-242318
Chunk: 65

Company: FIRST MERCHANTS CORP
Filing Date: 2025-10-17
Form: S-4/A
Chunk 65
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 to First Savings. |

First Savings’ board of directors also considered potential risks associated with the transactions contemplated by the merger agreement, including:

| • |     | The interests of First Savings’ executive officers and directors with respect to the transactions                                                                                                                                   
 contemplated by the merger agreement apart from their interests as shareholders of First Savings as disclosed under “—Interests of Certain Persons in the Merger,” and the risk that these interests might influence their decision 
 with respect to the transactions contemplated by the merger agreement;                                                                                                                                                              |

| • |     | The risk that the merger agreement provisions relating to the payment by First Savings of a cash termination fee                                                                                                                                          
 under specified circumstances, although required by First Merchants as a condition to entering into the merger agreement, could discourage other parties that may be interested in engaging in a business combination transaction with First Savings from 
 proposing it;                                                                                                                                                                                                                                             |

| • |     | The risk of litigation; |

| • |     | The restrictions imposed by the merger agreement on the conduct of First Savings’ business before the                                                 
 completion of the merger, which could delay or prevent First Savings from undertaking certain business opportunities that may arise during that time; |

| • |     | The fixed exchange ratio, by its nature, would generally not adjust upward to compensate for a decline in First                                                                                                                               
 Merchants’ stock price before the completion of the merger, resulting in First Savings’ shareholders not being protected against any decrease in First Merchants’ stock price before the completion of the merger, unless, as provided        
 for in the merger agreement, the decrease in First Merchants’ stock price relative to a broad bank market index was of a magnitude that First Merchants would agree to increase the exchange ratio so that First Savings would not be able to 
 exercise its right to terminate the merger agreement under such circumstances; and                                                                                                                                                            |

| • |     | The need to obtain First Savings shareholder approval and governmental approvals to consummate the Merger. |

The foregoing discussion of the information and factors considered by First Savings’ board of directors is not intended to be exhaustive but constitutes the material factors considered by the board of directors. In reaching its determination to approve the merger agreement and recommend that First Savings’ shareholders vote to approve the merger agreement and the transactions contemplated by it, the board of directors did not assign any relative or specific weights to the foregoing factors, and individual 45

directors may have weighed factors differently. The terms of the merger agreement were the product of arm’s length negotiations between respective representatives of First Savings and First Merch