Home Bancshares Buys Another Florida Bank

Centennial Bank, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Home BancShares, Inc., announced today it has acquired all the deposits and substantially all the assets of Heritage Bank of Florida with offices located in Tampa, Lutz and Wesley Chapel, Florida, through an agreement with the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC).

As of September 30, 2012, Heritage Bank of Florida had approximately $225.5 million in total assets and $223.3 million in total deposits. In addition to assuming all of the deposits of the failed bank, Centennial Bank agreed to purchase approximately $193.7 million of the failed bank’s assets. The FDIC will retain the remaining assets for later disposition.

“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.  We want depositors of Heritage Bank to be confident in knowing that they will be banking with a strong, community banking oriented financial institution.  We also want to reassure all customers of Heritage Bank they will continue to conduct business as normal with the employees with whom they have built a solid long term relationship,” said Randy Sims, Chief Executive Officer of Home BancShares and Centennial Bank.

“We are very pleased to expand our Central Florida franchise.  We anticipate a smooth and seamless transition, similar to our experiences with our previously announced FDIC-assisted acquisitions.  Our local Centennial Bank team along with management from Home BancShares has been deployed to assist in the weekend resolution process,” Sims added.

The acquisition adds three new branch locations in Tampa, Lutz and Wesley Chapel, Florida for Centennial Bank.

The transaction does not include any non-performing loans or other real estate owned of Heritage. The transaction was structured as a whole bank purchase and assumption without a loss sharing agreement with the FDIC.

Home Bancshares (NASDAQ: HOMB) shares closed trading Friday at $33.72. The company’s stock has traded between $23.11 and $35.84 in the past 52 weeks.