STUART, Fla., Aug. 21, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — Seacoast Banking Corporation of Florida (NASDAQ: SBCF) (“Seacoast”), the holding company for Seacoast National Bank (“Seacoast Bank”), announced today the completion of its acquisition of Fourth Street Banking Company (“Fourth Street”), effective August 21, 2020, pursuant to the merger of Fourth Street with and into Seacoast and of Fourth Street’s wholly-owned banking subsidiary, Freedom Bank, with and into Seacoast Bank.
Under the terms of the merger agreement, Fourth Street shareholders will receive 0.1275 shares of Seacoast common stock for each share of Fourth Street common stock held immediately prior to the merger. The resulting aggregate merger consideration paid by Seacoast was approximately $41.7 million.Freedom Bank, headquartered in St. Petersburg, has deposits of approximately $359 million and loans of approximately $312 million as of June 30, 2020. The acquisition increases Seacoast’s presence in one of the strongest and fastest growing markets in Florida, and complements Seacoast’s prior acquisitions in the Tampa-St. Petersburg-Clearwater MSA, including GulfShore Bank and NorthStar Bank in 2017.“We welcome Freedom Bank’s customers and employees into the Seacoast family,” said Dennis S. Hudson, III, Seacoast Chairman and CEO. “We are confident they will readily enjoy our broad range of convenient and mobile-accessible products and services as well as Seacoast’s personalized brand of customer service.”Transaction DetailsPiper Sandler Companies served as financial advisor and Alston & Bird LLP served as legal counsel to Seacoast. Hovde Group LLC served as financial advisor and Smith Mackinnon PA served as legal counsel to Fourth Street.Customer InformationFreedom Bank customers will benefit immediately from the merger with access to Seacoast’s full suite of digital banking products and local Florida-based customer service. Additionally, customers will have fee-free access to Seacoast ATMs and more than 1,250 Publix ATMs across the Southeast.About Seacoast Banking Corporation of Florida (NASDAQ: SBCF)Seacoast Banking Corporation of Florida is one of the largest community banks headquartered in Florida with approximately $8.1 billion in assets and $6.7 billion in deposits as of June 30, 2020. The Company provides integrated financial services including commercial and retail banking, wealth management, and mortgage services to customers through advanced banking solutions and 50 traditional branches of its locally-branded, wholly-owned subsidiary bank, Seacoast Bank. Seacoast operates primarily in Florida, with concentrations in the state’s fastest growing markets. The Company’s offices stretch from the southeast, including Fort Lauderdale, Boca Raton and Palm Beach north along the east coast to the Daytona area, into Orlando and Central Florida and the adjacent Tampa market, and west to Okeechobee and surrounding counties. More information about the Company is available at www.SeacoastBanking.com.Cautionary Notice Regarding Forward-Looking StatementsThis press release contains “forward-looking statements” within the meaning, and protections, of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933 and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, including, without limitation, statements about future financial and operating results, cost savings, enhanced revenues, economic and seasonal conditions in our markets, and improvements to reported earnings that may be realized from cost controls, tax law changes, new initiatives and for integration of banks that we have acquired, or expect to acquire, including Fourth Street, as well as statements with respect to Seacoast’s objectives, strategic plans, including Vision 2020, expectations and intentions and other statements that are not historical facts, any of which may be impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic and related effects on the U.S. economy. Actual results may differ from those set forth in the forward-looking statements.Forward-looking statements include statements with respect to our beliefs, plans, objectives, goals, expectations, anticipations, assumptions, estimates and intentions about future performance and involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors, which may be beyond our control, and which may cause the actual results, performance or achievements of Seacoast to be materially different from future results, performance or achievements expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements. You should not expect us to update any forward-looking statements.All statements other than statements of historical fact could be forward-looking statements. You can identify these forward-looking statements through our use of words such as “may”, “will”, “anticipate”, “assume”, “should”, “support”, “indicate”, “would”, “believe”, “contemplate”, “expect”, “estimate”, “continue”, “further”, “plan”, “point to”, “project”, “could”, “intend”, “target” or other similar words and expressions of the future. These forward-looking statements may not be realized due to a variety of factors, including, without limitation: the effects of future economic and market conditions, including seasonality and the adverse impact of COVID-19 (economic and otherwise); governmental monetary and fiscal policies, including interest rate policies of the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve, as well as legislative, tax and regulatory changes; changes in accounting policies, rules and practices, including the impact of the adoption of CECL; the risks of changes in interest rates on the level and composition of deposits, loan demand, liquidity and the values of loan collateral, securities, and interest sensitive assets and liabilities; interest rate risks, sensitivities and the shape of the yield curve; uncertainty related to the impact of LIBOR calculations on securities and loans; changes in borrower credit risks and payment behaviors; changes in the availability and cost of credit and capital in the financial markets; changes in the prices, values and sales volumes of residential and commercial real estate; our ability to comply with any regulatory requirements; the effects of problems encountered by other financial institutions that adversely affect us or the banking industry; our concentration in commercial real estate loans; the failure of assumptions and estimates, as well as differences in, and changes to, economic, market and credit conditions; the impact on the valuation of our investments due to market volatility or counterparty payment risk; statutory and regulatory dividend restrictions; increases in regulatory capital requirements for banking organizations generally; the risks of mergers, acquisitions and divestitures, including our ability to continue to identify acquisition targets and successfully acquire desirable financial institutions; changes in technology or products that may be more difficult, costly, or less effective than anticipated; our ability to identify and address increased cybersecurity risks; inability of our risk management framework to manage risks associated with our business; dependence on key suppliers or vendors to obtain equipment or services for our business on acceptable terms; reduction in or the termination of our ability to use the mobile-based platform that is critical to our business growth strategy; the effects of war or other conflicts, acts of terrorism, natural disasters, health emergencies, epidemics or pandemics, or other catastrophic events that may affect general economic conditions; unexpected outcomes of and the costs associated with, existing or new litigation involving us; our ability to maintain adequate internal controls over financial reporting; potential claims, damages, penalties, fines and reputational damage resulting from pending or future litigation, regulatory proceedings and enforcement actions; the risks that our deferred tax assets could be reduced if estimates of future taxable income from our operations and tax planning strategies are less than currently estimated and sales of our capital stock could trigger a reduction in the amount of net operating loss carryforwards that we may be able to utilize for income tax purposes; the effects of competition from other commercial banks, thrifts, mortgage banking firms, consumer finance companies, credit unions, securities brokerage firms, insurance companies, money market and other mutual funds and other financial institutions operating in our market areas and elsewhere, including institutions operating regionally, nationally and internationally, together with such competitors offering banking products and services by mail, telephone, computer and the Internet; and the failure of assumptions underlying the establishment of reserves for possible loan losses.The risks relating to the Fourth Street merger include, without limitation: the diversion of management time on issues related to the merger; unexpected transaction costs, including the costs of integrating operations; the risks that the businesses will not be integrated successfully or that such integration may be more difficult, time- consuming or costly than expected; the potential failure to fully or timely realize expected revenues and revenue synergies, including as the result of revenues following the merger being lower than expected; the risk of deposit and customer attrition; any changes in deposit mix; unexpected operating and other costs, which may differ or change from expectations; the risks of customer and employee loss and business disruptions, including, without limitation, as the result of difficulties in maintaining relationships with employees; increased competitive pressures and solicitations of customers by competitors; as well as the difficulties and risks inherent with entering new markets.Given the many unknowns and risks being heavily weighted to the downside, our forward-looking statements are subject to the risk that conditions will be substantially different than we are currently expecting. If efforts to contain COVID-19 are unsuccessful and restrictions on movement last into the third quarter or beyond, the recession would be much longer and much more severe. Ineffective fiscal stimulus, or an extended delay in implementing it, are also major downside risks. The deeper the recession is, and the longer it lasts, the more it will damage consumer fundamentals and sentiment. This could both prolong the recession, and/or make any recovery weaker. Similarly, the recession could damage business fundamentals. And an extended global recession due to COVID-19 would weaken the U.S. recovery. As a result, the outbreak and its consequences, including responsive measures to manage it, have had and are likely to continue to have an adverse effect, possibly materially, on our business and financial performance by adversely affecting, possibly materially, the demand and profitability of our products and services, the valuation of assets and our ability to meet the needs of our customers.All written or oral forward-looking statements attributable to us are expressly qualified in their entirety by this cautionary notice, including, without limitation, those risks and uncertainties described in our annual report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2019 and quarterly reports on Form 10-Q for the quarters ended March 31, 2020 and June 30, 2020, under “Special Cautionary Notice Regarding Forward-looking Statements” and “Risk Factors”, and otherwise in our SEC reports and filings. Such reports are available upon request from the Company, or from the Securities and Exchange Commission, including through the SEC’s Internet website at www.sec.gov.Media Contact:
Jennifer Reissman
772-463-8947
Jennifer.Reissman@seacoastbank.com
Bay Street News