Centennial, BOZ Buy Two Failed Banks

Two major Arkansas bank companies on March 26 bought failed banks in Florida and Georgia in FDIC-assisted deals that will add millions of dollars of deposits and assets to their respective balance sheets.

Centennial Bank of Conway, a subsidiary of publicly traded Home BancShares, is buying Key West Bank in Key West, Fla. Bank of the Ozarks of Little Rock is buying Unity National Bank in Cartersville, Ga.

The Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation is assisting in both deals.

They follow a Centennial Bank purchase, announced March 12, of Old Southern Bank of Orlando, Fla., which came not long after Home BancShares raised more than $100 million by selling stock just for such opportunities.

“This is a fantastic acquisition which allows us to enhance our existing presence and leverage our present infrastructure in Key West,” C. Randall Sims, CEO of Home BancShares and Centennial Bank, said of the Florida purchase. “Our local Centennial Bank team along with management from Home BancShares has been deployed to assist in the weekend resolution process.”

The Florida acquisition provides Centennial Bank with an operation that has assets of about $87.5 million, deposits of about $66.7 million and loan of about $66.5 million before loan discounts and FDIC receivables.

In Georgia, Bank of the Ozarks assumed about $259 million in deposits and $295 million in assets in the deal. It hopes to retain most of the more than 15,000 former Unity National Bank loan and deposit accounts.

In Bank of the Ozarks’ deal for the Georgia bank, the FDIC will reimburse Bank of the Ozarks for 80 percent of losses it incurs on the disposition of loans and foreclosed real estate up to $65 million. For losses in excess $65 million, the FDIC will reimburse Bank of the Ozarks for 95 percent of the losses it incurs.