Loading
Little Rock, Ark.-based Bank of the Ozarks, which entered the Gulf Coast market in late 2010, nearly expanded its local presence last month — part of a larger aggressive growth plan.
The bank was one of at least four institutions that placed a bid with the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. for Clearwater-based Old Harbor Bank, according to research firm SNL. The winning bid went to Boca Raton-based 1st United Bank, which agreed to share $155.6 million in Old Harbor loses with the FDIC.
The Florida Department of Financial Regulation closed Old Harbor Oct. 21, citing undercapitalization issues. Old Harbor was almost bought three months earlier, by Lakewood Ranch-based Community Bank, but a deal fell through.
Centennial Bank, a unit of Conway, Ark.-based Home BancShares Inc., joined Bank of the Ozarks and 1st United on the Old Harbor bid list, FDIC documents show. The FDIC doesn't disclose specific bids each bank makes, though the names of the lenders and the bids that didn't win are listed in random order.
Bank of the Ozarks, with more than $4 billion in assets, has made several other attempts to grow recently, in Florida and other Southeast locations. The bank was the second-place bidder for The People's Bank in Winder, Ga., outside Atlanta, in September, for one. It also didn't win a September bid for The First National Bank of Florida, a $296.8 million-asset institution based in Santa Rosa County, in the Florida Panhandle.
Run by George Gleason, a onetime Little Rock attorney who practiced law with Hillary Rodham Clinton, Bank of the Ozarks first entered the Gulf Coast in September 2010. That's when it assumed $164.6 million in deposits at Bradenton-based Horizon Bank, which Florida banking regulators shuttered after a long survival struggle. American Banker named Gleason Community Banker of the Year in 2010.
Your free article limit has been reached this month.
Subscribe now for unlimited digital access to our award-winning business news.
Join thousands of executives who rely on us for insights spanning Tampa Bay to Naples.
