BancorpSouth to Acquire Louisiana Agency

BancorpSouth Inc. announced that it has reached an agreement in principle to acquire certain assets of WMS, L.L.C., of Baton Rouge, which operates under the name of Wright & Percy Insurance. Terms of the acquisition were not disclosed.

The firm is Louisiana’s oldest and largest independent insurance agency. Wright & Percy was founded in 1882 and currently has 130 employees in four offices located in Baton Rouge, Alexandria, Lake Charles and Shreveport.

WMS, L.L.C., president and CEO Markham McKnight said, “Wright & Percy will maintain its separate identity as an insurance agency after the acquisition and will operate as a division of BancorpSouth Insurance Services Inc., a subsidiary of BancorpSouth Bank.”

BancorpSouth chairman and CEO Aubrey Patterson said the acquisition is expected to close within the next month. He added that BancorpSouth has “been actively looking to expand our insurance services throughout the company’s six-state market area and are pleased that Wright & Percy will join our successful insurance subsidiary.” The acquisition is the company’s third major insurance agency acquisition in four years. Pattern said it “will consider other similar acquisitions.”

In 1999, BancorpSouth acquired Stewart Sneed Hewes Inc. In 2000, it bought Pittman Insurance Agency and the Kilgore, Seay and Turner Agency, each based in Jackson, Miss.

Wright & Percy operated from Baton Rouge for its first 114 years, expanding to Lake Charles and Shreveport in 1996 and to Alexandria in 1997. The agency markets and services the offerings of more than 200 insurance carriers across all lines of insurance including personal, commercial, corporate benefits, bonds, life insurance and investments.

BancorpSouth is headquartered in Tupelo, Miss., and operates approximately 250 commercial banking, insurance, trust, broker/dealer and consumer finance locations in Alabama, Arkansas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Tennessee and Texas.

Topics Mergers & Acquisitions Louisiana