Bank of the Ozarks Inc. of Little Rock said late Monday that it has purchased C1 Financial Inc. of St. Petersburg, Florida, and its wholly-owned bank subsidiary, C1 Bank, in all-stock deal worth $402.5 million.
The deal, which has been approved by both companies' boards and is set to close by the second quarter of 2016, will put Bank of the Ozarks in Miami and Orlando for the first time.
C1 operates 32 Florida banking offices on the west coast of Florida and in Miami-Dade and Orange Counties. Most of its offices are located in Florida's top six metropolitan markets.
As of Sept. 30, C1 had about $1.7 billion of total assets, $1.4 billion of loans and $1.3 billion of deposits.
Trevor Burgess, president and CEO of C1 and founder of C1 Bank, will join Bank of the Ozarks as chief innovation officer and president of the company's Florida operations. Bank of the Ozarks also said Burgess "is expected to be nominated at a future annual meeting of shareholders for membership" on its board of directors as part of a group of C-level officers who rotate from year to year on the board.
"This acquisition provides us with 32 additional offices in Florida, including entry into the Miami, Orlando and Cape Coral-Ft. Myers markets and significantly expands our existing 10-office Florida presence," George Gleason, chairman and CEO of Bank of the Ozarks, said in a news release. "The addition of these branches in some of Florida’s best high growth, deposit-rich markets is very attractive to us, but of equal value is the skilled and dedicated team at C1 Bank."
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