As financial institutions face continued hardships in the market and increased regulatory burdens, American Banker notes that bank execs across the country find themselves constantly wondering whether it’s time to “do a deal.” That’s where Daryl Byrd and Rusty Cloutier come in.

Byrd, president and CEO of IberiaBank, and Cloutier, president and CEO of MidSouth Bank, will deliver two of the four keynote addresses scheduled for American Banker’s M&A Symposium: Laying The Groundwork, to be held May 1 and 2 in New York City. The two Lafayette-based bank leaders will serve as success stories on healthy growth through mergers and acquisitions, as experienced by the recent string of acquisitions for both Iberia and MidSouth.
American Banker notes that Byrd has overseen the nine acquisitions in four years, also boasting that 78 percent of IberiaBank’s growth since 2002 stems from 16 acquisitions — “including seven live banks, five FDIC-assisted and four non-bank acquisitions.”

In 2011, after Hancock Bank swooped in and undercut IberiaBank’s plans to acquire Whitney Bank, Iberia bounced back with three acquisition announcements, including Metairie-based Omni Bank, Cameron State Bank of Lake Charles and $700,000 in unspecified assets of Florida Trust Company.

Iberia’s most recent acquisition announcement came in March, when the publicly traded bank outlined its plans to purchase Florida Gulf Bank in a deal worth $43.7 million.

“With a strong strategic focus, significant M&A experience and depth, and balance sheet strength, [IberiaBank] occupies a fairly unique position within the financial services industry in the Southeastern U.S.,” American Banker says in its bio of Byrd.

Cloutier, meanwhile, led three acquisitions for MidSouth in 2011 — two in Texas and one in Breaux Bridge — “and in the process increased assets by 40 percent,” American Banker explains in Cloutier’s conference bio.

The MidSouth buys began in April 2011 when the company announced the purchases of five branches of Jefferson Bank in the Dallas/Fort Worth area. In August 2011, MidSouth bought a branch of Beacon Federal Bank in Tyler, Texas, finishing off the chain of acquisitions with its purchase of First Louisiana National Bank, headquartered in Breaux Bridge.

“In each of these situations, a disciplined approach to pricing, proactive communication with regulators and an in-depth due diligence process led to successful outcomes,” American Banker says of MidSouth’s expansion strategies.