Centennial Bank Buys Heritage Bank of Florida In FDIC-Assisted Deal

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Centennial Bank Buys Heritage Bank of Florida In FDIC-Assisted Deal

by Lance Turner on Friday, Nov. 2, 2012 5:21 pm

CEO Randy Sims announces another FDIC-assisted deal for Centennial Bank to take over the assets of a Florida bank.

Centennial Bank, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Home BancShares Inc. of Conway, said Friday that it has acquired all the deposits and substantially all the assets of Heritage Bank of Florida.

The bank has with three branches located in Tampa, Lutz and Wesley Chapel, Fla.

The deal, which the company said will be immediately accretive to net income by about $2.5 million, is the latest Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation-assisted acquisition by the Home BancShares.

Regulators seized Heritage and another bank on Friday, bringing to 49 the total number of bank closures this year.

(More: For more on Centennial Bank's expansion in the southeast, click here for this Arkansas Business cover story.)

"We are excited to welcome the customers and employees of Heritage Bank to our family and look forward to the benefits this acquisition should bring to the businesses and residents of the northern Tampa area," Randy Sims, the Home BancShares and Centennial Bank CEO said in a news release.

The deal includes $194 million in Heritage assets plus an cash settlement. Centennial will also take on performing loans of $158 million and deposits of $223 million.

The deal does not include any non-performing loans, the company said.

The Latest In Florida

The deal marks the latest in a long line of deals by Centennial Bank to buy bank companies in the Southeast, particularly Florida.

In the space of two years, Centennial Bank went from operating a geographically isolated banking network in the Florida Keys to a growing financial concern in the state -- one that now rivals its foundational operations in Arkansas

Thanks to six FDIC-assisted transactions, the lender went from operating the fourth-largest banking franchise in the Keys to building the 36th-largest banking franchise in Florida.

Before Friday's deal for Heritage Bank, Centennial’s 44 full-service locations service total deposits of $1.2 billion, dwarfing the position it held in Florida at the start of 2010: No. 147 with $241 million in total deposits.

FDIC at Work on Friday

On Friday, the FDIC seized Heritage Bank and Citizens First National Bank, based in Princeton, Ill.

Citizens First had $924 million in assets and $869.4 million in deposits as of Sept. 30.

Heartland Bank and Trust Co., based in Bloomington, Ill., will assume Heartland's assets and deposits.

The two bank failures are expected to cost the deposit insurance fund $110.7 million.

(With reporting by George Waldon and The Associated Press.)