FINANCE
its ninth since 2014.
Chuck Shaffer, the chief financial officer and chief operating officer
of Seacoast, did not say whether the devaluation of the U.S.
and global equity markets will have an impact on the company’s
growth plans.
“We don’t have any new deals we are ready to announce at this
time, but yes, we continue to look for opportunities for acquisitions
in high-growth markets in Florida like Palm Beach County,
Tampa-St. Petersburg, Southwest Florida and Central Florida,”
Shaffer told Treasure Coast Business.
“In light of COVID-19 and the resulting business environment,
our main focus right now is on serving our customers,” Shaffer
said. He stressed that Seacoast provides customers with “convenient
online, mobile and telephone banking that they can do
from home” and that Seacoast has instituted a customer assistance
program for those “whose finances have been adversely
affected by the pandemic,” online at SeacoastBank.com/recovery.
Seacoast Banking Corp. is traded on the Nasdaq under the
ticker symbol SBCF.
MERGER AWAITS
The CenterState-South State merger is scheduled to close in the
third quarter of 2020. A Financial Times columnist in December,
on the heels of the creation of Truist, said 2020 would be a banner
year for U.S. banking mergers. Now, because of COVID-19, banking
analysts say it is not clear whether that forecast will ring true.
In a joint filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission
in March, CenterState and South State mention that COVID-19
may adversely affect their plans to merge, and that it may muddy
financial forecasts. SEC filings require publicly traded companies
to give frank assessments of risk factors, which are not forecasts.
Meanwhile, since the two banks announced their merger
intentions on Jan. 27, plans to integrate the two similar financial
institutions are moving apace, said Richard Murray, who will be
president of the new South State.
There is not much geographic overlap of the two banks, but
their corporate cultures and core values are similar, and their
executives have long known one another, Murray said.
Since the January announcement, executives of each bank
have met weekly — lately by conference call due to COVID-19
— and have confirmed that they have similar financial goals and
corporate cultures, Murray said.
CenterState customers will go over to the South State digital
platform, provided by Fiserv Inc., which will enhance digital banking
for CenterState customers on the Treasure Coast, Murray said.
A presentation by the two banks in January showed that CenterState
had more in deposits, $13.1 billion to $12.2 billion.
Combined, the two banks greatly diversify their geographic
footprint. CenterState’s deposits are 77 percent from Florida while
South State’s are 61 percent from South Carolina and 24 percent
from Georgia. Combined, the new company South State will likely
see the following makeup of nearly $26 billion in deposits: Florida,
40 percent; South Carolina, 29 percent; Georgia, 19 percent; North
Carolina and Alabama each at 5 percent; and Virginia, 2 percent.
The new bank will have more than 1 million customers. At
the time of the merger announcement, the two companies had
a market capitalization of $6.1 billion, which had fallen by late
March to about $4.2 billion with the dip in stock markets.
CenterState is traded on the Nasdaq under the ticker symbol of
CSFL. South State trades on the Nasdaq as SSB, which will also be
the ticker symbol once the two companies finalize their merger. v
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