United Bankshares, Inc. (NASDAQ: UBSI) Chairman, Richard M. Adams, announced the signing of a definitive merger agreement with Century Bancshares, Inc. (NASDAQ: CTRY), headquartered in Washington, D.C. Under the agreement, United will acquire Century Bancshares and its wholly-owned banking subsidiary, Century National Bank. Century Bancshares, with $415 million in assets, has 11 full service offices located in Northern Virginia, Washington, D.C., and Montgomery County, Maryland. United's total assets will increase to $5.4 billion.

In a transaction intended to be a tax-free exchange of shares and accounted for under the purchase method of accounting, Century shareholders would receive 0.45 shares of United Bankshares, Inc. common stock plus $3.43 in cash for each share of Century common stock. The transaction will have an aggregate consideration of approximately $62.5 million based on Century's 4.32 million common shares outstanding. The announced price represents 20 times Century's 2001 earnings estimate, 2.5 times book value and 15% of Century's total assets.

Upon completion of the acquisition, it is anticipated that Century National will be merged with United's Virginia subsidiary, United Bank. Kendal E. Carson, President and Chief Executive Officer of United Bank stated, "This strategic acquisition will increase our Washington Metropolitan Franchise to 33 retail locations and over $2 billion in assets."

Century Chairman, Joseph Bracewell, added, "We are happy to be joining with United, a high performance banking company with a great track record of creating shareholder value." Mr. Bracewell will be joining the United Bank Board of Directors as Vice Chairman. Mr. Carson will continue as President and Chief Executive Officer and Mr. Lawrence K. Doll will remain Chairman of the Board of Directors of United Bank.

Consummation of the proposed merger is subject to certain conditions, among them, regulatory approval and approval by the shareholders of Century. The transaction is expected to be consummated during the fourth quarter of 2001.

Following completion of the proposed merger with Century, United will have consolidated assets of over $5.4 billion with 86 full service offices in Virginia, Maryland, Washington, D.C, West Virginia, and Ohio. The combined company would be among the top performing banking companies in the nation.

United Bankshares and Century stocks are traded on the NASDAQ (National Association of Securities Dealers Quotation System) under the quotation symbol "UBSI" and "CTRY", respectively.