Civista Bancshares, Inc. (“Civista”) (NASDAQ: CIVB) and United Community Bancorp (“United Community”) (NASDAQ: UCBA) today announced that the shareholders of each company approved the proposed merger of United Community into Civista.

Civista shareholders also approved an amendment to its Articles of Incorporation to increase the number of its authorized common shares from 20 million shares to 40 million shares.

“I am extremely happy that Civista shareholders recognized the benefit of extending Civista’s financial services to United Community’s customers and communities,” said Dennis G. Shaffer, President and CEO of Civista. “In addition, the increase in authorized shares will allow us to continue to pursue our plans to grow Civista.”

“We appreciate the support of our shareholders for a transaction that we believe offers a win-win situation for Civista and United Community and the constituents we serve,” said E.G. McLaughlin, President and CEO of United Community. “We look forward to working with Civista to complete the merger of our two community-focused organizations. Working together, we will ensure that our customers continue to receive the same outstanding service they have come to expect, while also benefiting from a larger selection of products and services.”

Civista also announced that it has received the required regulatory approvals from the Ohio Division of Financial Institutions and the Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland to complete the merger of the banking subsidiaries of Civista and United Community. The merger of United Community into Civista and the merger of United Community Bank into Civista Bank are currently expected to close on September 14, 2018, subject to the satisfaction of other customary closing conditions. At that time, all banking offices of United Community Bank will become offices of Civista Bank.