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Florida Community Bank, a fast-growing lender with offices in several Gulf Coast markets, signed a deal to buy Miami Lakes-based Great Florida Bank for about $42.5 million.
The acquisition, pending regulatory and shareholder approval, will create a $4.5 billion institution and Florida's fourth-largest independent bank, according to a release. Weston-based Florida Community Bank, a subsidiary of Miami-based Bond Street Holdings, will pay Great Florida Bank stockholders $3.24 a share in the deal, the release states. Great Florida Bank's shares recently traded for $3 a share, so FCB will pay an 8% premium to the current share price.
Great Florida has $1.14 billion in assets, according to Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. data, while FCB has more than $3.4 billion in assets.
The deal, further, which could close by the end of the year, is also a path for FCB to enter lucrative markets in Miami-Dade and Broward counties, where Great Florida Bank has 25 locations. FCB, meanwhile, has 42 locations spread through both Florida coasts and Orlando. It also recently moved into a new branch in Sarasota.
“The transaction with Great Florida Bank is truly a 'game changer' for our company as we have been eager to expand our presence in Miami, Florida's largest metro market,” FCB President and CEO Kent Ellert says in the statement. “We are a Florida-based, Florida-focused company and the merger with Great Florida Bank adds significant scale to our brand and will result in meaningful synergies that will benefit customers and communities of both institutions.”
This is the eighth acquisition for FCB since 2010 when the bank, then based in Immokalee, failed. Bond Street Holdings acquired its assets and deposits, and since then has developed a mission to acquire failed or underperforming banks statewide.
FCB, in a separate release, also announced it has teamed up with Raymond James Financial Services to provide asset management services to clients. “Bringing asset management services to our product line was a long standing goal of our institution and we researched our options thoroughly before selecting Raymond James,” Ellert says in that statement. “It was important for us to align with a firm that not only provides vast resources, but can also meet our expectations for growth.”
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