Bank capitalizes on fast growth

Longtime Manatee County banker Bill Sedgeman's anxiety was at an apex when he sat down for lunch at the Polo Grill in east Manatee County one day in April 2009.

The $252 million asset bank Sedgeman founded in 1995, Community Bank of Manatee, was one of many lenders that needed capital. Across the table from Sedgeman sat Trevor Burgess, a former Morgan Stanley investment banker. Burgess and a business partner, Brazilian investor Marcelo Lima, had spent the past 15 months scouring Florida for a community bank in which to invest. They worked off a list of hundreds of banks with assets from $100 million to $500 million.

Sedgeman and Burgess formed the beginnings of a partnership, and capital infusion plan, during lunch. That agreement culminated July 11 in the announcement of what could be a $50 million public offering from St. Petersburg-based C1 Financial, the holding company over C1 Bank, formerly Community Bank of Manatee. It was an unusually fast ride: C1 grew assets more than 450%, to $1.4 billion in five years.