Company: MBINL
Filing Date: 2025-05-23
Form Type: S-3
Source: 0001104659-25-052423
Chunk: 33

Company: Merchants Bancorp
Filing Date: 2025-05-23
Form: S-3
Chunk 33
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 plan of merger or plan of share exchange. Merchants has opted out of the control share acquisition provision.

Indiana’s business combination statute, IBCL Section 23-1-43-1 et seq., restricts a business combination between the target corporation and an interested shareholder absent certain statutory exceptions. Under the business combinations provision of the IBCL, any shareholder who acquires a 10%-or-greater ownership position in an Indiana corporation with a class of voting shares registered under Section 12 of the Exchange Act (and that has not opted-out of this provision) is prohibited for a period of five years from completing

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a business combination (generally a merger, significant asset sale or disposition or significant issuance of additional shares) with the corporation unless, prior to the acquisition of such 10% interest, the board of directors of the corporation approved either the acquisition of such interest or the proposed business combination. If such board of directors approval is not obtained, then five years after a 10% shareholder has become such, a business combination with the 10% shareholder is permitted if all provisions of the articles of the corporation are complied with and either a majority of disinterested shareholders approves the transaction or all shareholders receive a price per share determined in accordance with the fair price criteria of the business combinations provision of the IBCL. An Indiana corporation may elect to remove itself from the protection provided by the Indiana business combinations provision, but such an election remains ineffective for 18 months and does not apply to a combination with a shareholder who acquired a 10% ownership position prior to the election. Merchants has not elected to remove itself from the protections of this provision.

Provisions of the IBCL and our articles permit directors, in discharging their duties, to consider the best interests of a corporation, to consider the effects of any action on shareholders, employees, suppliers, and customers of the corporation, and communities in which offices or other facilities of the corporation are located, and any other factors the directors consider pertinent. The IBCL constituency provisions and our articles give our board of directors, in the event that we were a target, the discretion to favor a business combination transaction that is better for our employees, the community and local economy over a business combination transaction with a higher price, but more detrimental effects to the community.

#### Certain Provisions of Federal Law.
The ability of a third party to acquire Merchants is also subject to applicable federal banking laws and regulations. The Bank Holding Company Act of