LANCASTER, Pa., Jan. 3 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Fulton Financial
Corporation (Nasdaq: FULT) completed its acquisition of First Washington
FinancialCorp (Nasdaq: FWFC), based in Windsor, New Jersey, on December 31,
2004. First Washington FinancialCorp's sole banking subsidiary, First
Washington State Bank, also based in Windsor, will now operate as a separate
subsidiary of Fulton Financial Corporation.
First Washington shareholders approved the merger at a special meeting on
November 5. Final regulatory approvals were received in November. Under the
terms of the definitive merger agreement, First Washington shareholders will
receive 1.35 shares of Fulton Financial common stock for each share of First
Washington FinancialCorp common stock. Based on the $23.31 per share closing
price of Fulton Financial stock on December 31, 2004, the transaction is
valued at approximately $148 million.
First Washington State Bank, with approximately $486 million in assets,
operates sixteen community banking offices in Mercer, Monmouth and Ocean
Counties in New Jersey.
Fulton Financial Corporation now has assets of approximately $11.1 billion
and operates 224 banking offices in Pennsylvania, Maryland, Delaware, New
Jersey and Virginia.
In addition to First Washington State Bank, Fulton Financial operates
twelve other banking affiliates: Fulton Bank, Lancaster, PA; Lebanon Valley
Farmers Bank, Lebanon, PA; Swineford National Bank, Middleburg, PA; Lafayette
Ambassador Bank, Easton, PA; FNB Bank, N.A., Danville, PA; Hagerstown Trust,
Hagerstown, MD; Delaware National Bank, Georgetown, DE; The Bank, Woodbury,
NJ; The Peoples Bank of Elkton, Elkton, MD; Skylands Community Bank,
Hackettstown, NJ, Premier Bank, Doylestown, PA and Resource Bank, Virginia
Beach, VA.
The Corporation's financial services affiliates include Fulton Financial
Advisors, N.A., Lancaster, PA; Dearden, Maguire, Weaver and Barrett, LLC, West
Conshohocken, PA, and Fulton Insurance Services Group Inc., Lancaster, PA.
Residential mortgage lending is offered through Fulton Mortgage Company and
through Resource Mortgage.
Additional information on Fulton Financial Corporation is available on the
Internet at http://www.fult.com.
SOURCE Fulton Financial Corporation
-0- 01/03/2005
/CONTACT: Laura J. Wakeley of Fulton Financial Corporation,
+1-717-371-2379/
/Web site: http://www.fult.com /
(FULT FWFC)
CO: Fulton Financial Corporation; First Washington FinancialCorp; First
Washington State Bank
ST: Pennsylvania, New Jersey
IN: FIN OTC
SU: TNM
DP
-- PHM008 --
0512 01/03/200509:23 ESThttp://www.prnewswire.com