First Financial Bancorp to Acquire Liberty Savings Bank's Ohio-Based Retail Branch Locations

First Financial Bancorp FFBC announced that its wholly-owned subsidiary, First Financial Bank, has signed a purchase and assumption agreement to acquire all 16 of the retail banking branches of Liberty Savings Bank, FSB ("Liberty") located in Ohio.  The deposits associated with these branches totaled approximately $346.2 million as of March 31, 2011.  Additionally, First Financial agreed to purchase a diversified portfolio of approximately $143.3 million of in-market performing loans as part of this transaction. Claude Davis, President and Chief Executive Officer commented, "This transaction allows us to accelerate our planned growth in the greater Dayton area, one of our key strategic markets, and provides a solid entry point for the Wilmington market where Liberty is well established.  The acquisition of this branch network and accompanying loan portfolio provides immediate scale and operating profitability in these markets that would otherwise take several years to accomplish on a de novo basis.