Bank of the Ozarks closes $800 million deal with Community & Southern, largest deal in bank’s history

Bank of the Ozarks said Wednesday (July 20) it has completed its $800 million acquisition of Atlanta-based Community & Southern Holdings Inc. (C&S), the Little Rock bank’s largest takeover to date and its 14th acquisition since March 2010.

Bank of the Ozarks officials said the deal, first announced Oct. 19, 2015, is expected to be immediately accretive to regional bank’s earnings over the next year and will also add value to the Arkansas financial group’s book value per common share and its tangible book value per common share. At the end of the second quarter, C&S had nearly $3.9 billion of total assets, $3.1 billion of loans and $3.3 billion of deposits.

“We are very pleased to complete the acquisition of Community & Southern Bank. Our customers in Georgia and Florida will benefit from our expanded network of banking offices. We now have a powerful presence in Georgia with 74 offices and a new Jacksonville, Fla., banking office to complement our growing Florida banking network,” Bank of the Ozarks Chairman and CEO George Gleason.

Pursuant to the terms of the merger agreement, each share of C&S common stock issued and outstanding immediately prior to the closing was converted into the right to receive 0.5464 of a share of the company’s common stock.

In connection with the closing of the merger transaction, Bank of the Ozarks issue nearly 20.2 million shares of its common stock to C&S stockholders. In addition, the Arkansas bank also issued approximately 783,000 shares of bank’s common to holders of outstanding C&S stock options, restricted stock units, deferred stock units and warrants in satisfaction of all outstanding C&S equity awards.

In addition, Bank of the Ozarks is also expected later this week to close its acquisition with St. Petersburg, Fla.-based C1 Financial Inc., announced about a month before the C&S transaction.

Bank of the Ozarks announced Nov. 16 it would expand its southern U.S. reach and acquire St. Petersburg, Fla.-based C1 Financial in an all-stock transaction valued at $402.5 million. C1 operates 32 Florida banking offices on the west coast of Florida and in Miami-Dade and Orange counties. The majority of the offices are located in Florida’s top six metropolitan markets. At September 30, 2015, C1 had approximately $1.7 billion of total assets, $1.4 billion of loans and $1.3 billion of deposits.

As of June 30, the fast-growing Arkansas regional banking group has total assets of nearly $12.3 billion, conducting financial operations through 224 offices in Arkansas, Georgia, Texas, North Carolina, Florida, Alabama, South Carolina, New York and California.

At the end of Wednesday’s session, Bank of the Ozarks shares (NASDAQ: OZRK) were down 4.6%, or $1.81 at $37.55. More than 4.7 million shares traded hand, nearly three times the normal volume.