BATON ROUGE, La., Oct. 01, 2024 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Business First Bancshares, Inc. (Business First) (Nasdaq: BFST), the holding company for b1BANK, has completed its acquisition of Oakwood Bancshares, Inc. (Oakwood), the holding company for Oakwood Bank. The acquisition became effective Oct. 1, 2024.

'b1 has been serving Dallas-Fort Worth market businesses with our boutique style banking for a number of years, as has Oakwood,” said Jude Melville, chairman, president and CEO of Business First and b1BANK. 'This partnership accelerates the meaningfulness we can deliver as we impact small and growing companies in one of our country's most vibrant markets.”