Icon (Close Menu)

Logout

Home BancShares Announces Purchase of Another Florida Bank

2 min read

Home BancShares Inc. of Conway, the parent company of Centennial Bank, announced Wednesday an agreement to buy Broward Financial Holdings Inc., parent company of Broward Bank of Commerce of Fort Lauderdale, Florida.

It is Home BancShares’ second Florida acquisition this year.

HBI will pay between $33 million and $34 million for the two-branch bank, which had assets as of June 30 of $168.5 million. The price represents a multiple of 1.645 and 1.649 of pro forma tangible common equity, according to the press release, for a small bank that was ranked 12th on DepositAccounts.com’s recent list of the “healthiest banks.”

Shareholders of Broward Financial will be paid 90 percent of the purchase price in Home BancShares stock and 10 percent in cash.

“This is a nice opportunistic acquisition which allows us to further expand our current Florida footprint into attractive, long-term growth markets on the east coast of Florida,” Home BancShares Chairman John Allison said in a press release announcing the deal. “We are excited to begin serving the communities in this area.”

Broward Bank of Commerce was chartered in 2009, making it one of the five youngest banks in Florida and one of the 35 youngest in the country. It earned just over $1 million in 2013 and posted net income of $496,000 in the first quarter of 2014 alone, according to the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp.

The deal is expected to close in the fourth quarter and the Broward Bank and Centennial Bank anticipate merging their operating systems on Nov. 14.

The acquisition will push Centennial Bank’s assets, which were almost $6.8 billion as of March 31, close to the $7 billion mark. Centennial already operates 50 branches in Florida as a result of a series of acquisitions, but Broward Bank of Commerce is the Conway bank’s first entrance into Broward County and Fort Lauderdale.

Send this to a friend