Sep. 11--Despite tough times for the financial services industry, another Charlotte community bank is selling for a premium.

Ten-year-old American Community Bancshares Inc. on Wednesday said it was selling to Elkin-based Yadkin Valley Financial Corp. in a transaction valued at about $92 million. The deal creates a bank with about $2 billion in assets and 42 branches stretching from Cherokee County in South Carolina to the N.C. foothills to the Triangle.

American Community is the third Charlotte bank to sell to an out-of-market bank since last August. It's also the second of three area community banks founded in the late 1990s to be snapped up in that span.

Experts said it's a natural life cycle for community banks to be sold after a decade or so, as growth slows and shareholders look for a return on their investment. While community bank deals have declined in the past year, industry observers expect the pace to pick up eventually as smaller banks wrestle with rising loan losses and depleted capital. The big question is whether there will be enough healthy buyers, they said.

"I think we will see a wave of small-bank acquisitions," said UNC Charlotte professor Tony Plath. "Everyone will be looking to pair up to pool resources."

In this deal, American Community shareholders get either $12.35 in cash per share or 0.8517 Yadkin Valley shares, although only 19.5 percent of the total deal can be paid out in cash. American Community shares jumped 50 percent after the transaction was announced, closing Wednesday at $10.51. In the past year, the shares have traded between $4.50 and $13.

Yadkin Valley shares, however, dropped 26 percent to $12.54 on the news. Its shares have traded between $9.85 and $17.90 over the past year.

American Community chief executive Randy Helton said he has long known Yadkin Valley counterpart Bill Long and that talks started heating up this summer. In the past year, a large shareholder had publicly pushed for a sale, but Helton said the deal wasn't the result of that pressure or any problems at the bank.

"We're always looking at strategic opportunities," Helton said. "They gave us a very attractive price for our shareholders."

Long, the Yadkin Valley CEO, said he has long eyed the Charlotte market because it was growing faster than his territory to the north. He also liked American Community's financial numbers, including its loan quality, he said.

"The way we look at mergers is that we find banks that are not broken," he said.