Company: NWBI
Filing Date: 2025-02-25
Form Type: 10-K
Source: 0001471265-25-000016
Chunk: 2

Company: Northwest Bancshares, Inc.
Filing Date: 2025-02-25
Form: 10-K
Item: Item 1
Chunk 2
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 Company agreed to fill the current vacancy on its Board of Directors (or otherwise expand its Board of Directors by one director and fill the resulting vacancy) with Penns Woods director, Richard A. Grafmyre, effective at the Effective Time and subject to the Company’s standard corporate governance practices and standard director evaluation process.

The Merger is expected to close in the third quarter of 2025, pending satisfaction of various closing conditions, including: (i) the receipt of Penns Woods’ shareholders adoption and approvals; (ii) authorization for listing on the Nasdaq Stock Market LLC of the shares of common stock of the Company to be issued in the Merger; (iii) the receipt of required regulatory approvals, including the approval of the Federal Reserve Board and the Pennsylvania Department of Banking and Securities; (iv) effectiveness of the registration statement on Form S-4 for the shares of common stock of the Company to be issued in the Merger; (v) the absence of any order, injunction or other legal restraint preventing or making illegal the completion of the Merger or any of the other transactions contemplated by the Merger Agreement.

Market Area and Competition

Northwest Bank is headquartered in northwestern Pennsylvania and has expanded primarily through acquisitions, into the southwestern and central regions of Pennsylvania, as well as western New York, northeastern Ohio, and Indiana. As of December 31, 2024, we operated 141 community banking locations across these market areas. All of the aforementioned market areas are served by a number of competing financial institutions. As a result, we encounter strong competition both in attracting deposits and in originating loans. Our most direct competition for deposits comes from other banks, brokerage houses and credit unions in our market areas. We expect continued competition from these financial institutions in the foreseeable future. With the continued acceptance of internet banking by our customers and consumers generally, competition for deposits has increased from institutions operating outside of our market area. 

The following description of our market area is based upon information obtained from SNL Securities, the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the Federal Housing Financial Agency and the Mortgage Bankers Association. 

Pennsylvania Market Area. Our retail branch network of 82 community banking offices within the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania encompasses 24 counties. Our western Pennsylvania market has a diverse economy driven by healthcare and education industries, service businesses, technology companies and small manufacturing operations. Our southeastern Pennsylvania market is primarily driven by service businesses but also serves as a bedroom community to the cities of Baltimore, Maryland and Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

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