Home Bancshares Taking Over Another Bank In Florida Panhandle

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by Talk Business & Politics staff ([email protected]) February 27, 2015 4:07 pm 231 views 

Home BancShares, Inc. has acquired another bank in Florida.

According to a company release, Conway-based Home Bancshares’ subsidiary Centennial Bank will take over the deposits and substantially all assets of Doral Bank’s Florida Panhandle operations.

The agreement is touted as an alliance with Banco Popular of Puerto Rico, the successful lead bidder in an FDIC-assisted deal with the failed Doral Bank of San Juan, Puerto Rico. Centennial has entered into a transition service agreement with Popular until Centennial and Doral Florida convert to a single operating system, which is anticipated to occur July 17, 2015.

According to a Home Bancshares statement, Centennial is buying the assets at a discount of approximately $5.9 million, which is expected to yield a one-time pre-tax bargain purchase gain of approximately $2 million.

The acquisition is expected to provide Centennial:

  • Loans of approximately $42.2 million before loan discounts;
  • Deposits of approximately $466.0 million including $339.5 million of time deposits and $126.5 million of transaction and savings accounts;
  • An undisclosed cash settlement to balance the transaction. A no loss-share agreement with the FDIC in the acquired assets.

Centennial will pick up five branch locations in Panama City, Panama City Beach and Pensacola, Florida plus a loan production office in Tallahassee, Florida.

“We are excited to grow our Florida Panhandle franchise through this FDIC-assisted acquisition. Centennial welcomes the customers of Doral Florida to our banking organization,” said Centennial CEO Tracy French. “We want to encourage the customers of Doral Florida to continue to conduct business as normal and to be confident in knowing they will be banking with a strong, community banking oriented financial institution.

“Our local Centennial team has been deployed to assist in the weekend resolution process. We are working with Popular to ensure the integration process is as seamless as possible for all of our customers and anticipate another solid transition, similar to our experiences with our previously completed FDIC-assisted acquisitions,” French said.

The bank acquisition is Centennial’s 12th bank takeover in Florida since 2005.