Accelerates Seacoast’s Successful Strategy of Expanding its Presence in the Attractive South Florida Market
STUART, Fla., Jan. 31, 2023 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — Seacoast Banking Corporation of Florida (NASDAQ: SBCF) (“Seacoast” or the “Company”), the holding company for Seacoast National Bank, announced today the completion of its acquisition of Professional Holding Corp. (“Professional”) (NASDAQ: PFHD), parent company of Professional Bank, effective January 31, 2023. The merger of Professional Bank with and into Seacoast National Bank was also effective January 31, 2023, with Seacoast National Bank being the surviving financial institution.
Under the terms of the merger agreement, Professional shareholders received 0.8909 shares of Seacoast common stock for each share of Professional common stock held immediately prior to the merger and Professional option holders received options to purchase Seacoast common stock, with the number of shares underlying each such option and the applicable exercise price adjusted using the same 0.8909 exchange ratio.
Professional Bank, the sixth largest bank headquartered in South Florida, had deposits of approximately $2.2 billion and loans of approximately $2.1 billion as of December 31, 2022.
Charles M. Shaffer, Seacoast’s Chairman and CEO, stated, “Professional Bank will be a strong addition to Seacoast’s breadth of offerings, accelerating our growth strategy and expanding our presence in the attractive tri-county South Florida market. With the combined scale, we will bring to market a larger balance sheet, a greater digital product set and the banking team to become South Florida’s most competitive community bank. We are excited to welcome Professional’s employees and customers to the Seacoast franchise.”
Transaction Details
Piper Sandler & Co. served as financial advisor and Alston & Bird LLP served as legal counsel to Seacoast. Stephens Inc. served as financial advisor and The Gunster Law Firm served as legal counsel to Professional.
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 $12.1 billion in assets and $10.0 billion in deposits as of December 31, 2022. Seacoast provides integrated financial services including commercial and consumer banking, wealth management, and mortgage services to customers at over 75 full-service branches across Florida, and through advanced mobile and online banking solutions. Seacoast National Bank is the wholly-owned subsidiary bank of Seacoast Banking Corporation of Florida. For more information about Seacoast, visit www.SeacoastBanking.com.
Cautionary Notice Regarding Forward-Looking Statements
This 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 recently acquired, including Apollo Bancshares, Inc., Drummond Banking Company and Professional Holding Corp. as well as statements with respect to Seacoast’s objectives, strategic plans, expectations and intentions and other statements that are not historical facts, any of which may be impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic and any variants thereof 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 the 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 impact of current and future economic and market conditions generally (including seasonality) and in the financial services industry, nationally and within Seacoast’s primary market areas, including the effects of inflationary pressures, elevated interest rates, slowdowns in economic growth, and the potential for high unemployment rates, as well as the financial stress on borrowers and changes to customer and client behavior (including the velocity of loan repayment) and credit risk as a result of the foregoing; 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, including those that impact the money supply and inflation; the risks of changes in interest rates on the level and composition of deposits (as well as the cost of, and competition for, deposits), loan demand, liquidity and the values of loan collateral, securities, and interest rate sensitive assets and liabilities; interest rate risks, sensitivities and the shape of the yield curve; the adverse impact of COVID-19 (economic and otherwise) on the Company and its customers, counterparties, employees, and third-party service providers, and the adverse impacts to our business, financial position, results of operations and prospects; government or regulatory responses to the COVID-19 pandemic; changes in accounting policies, rules and practices, including the impact of the adoption of the current expected credit losses (“CECL”) methodology; uncertainty related to the impact of LIBOR calculations on securities, loans and debt; changes in retail distribution strategies, customer preferences and behavior generally and as a result of economic factors; 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; the Company’s concentration in commercial real estate loans and in real estate collateral in Florida; our ability to comply with any regulatory requirements; the effects of problems encountered by other financial institutions that adversely affect Seacoast or the banking industry; inaccuracies or other failures from the use of models, including 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 Seacoast’s investments due to market volatility or counterparty payment risk, as well as the effect of a fall in stock market prices on our fee income from our brokerage and wealth management businesses; statutory and regulatory dividend restrictions; increases in regulatory capital requirements for banking organizations generally; the risks of mergers, acquisitions and divestitures, including Seacoast’s ability to continue to identify acquisition targets, successfully acquire and integrate desirable financial institutions and realize expected revenues and revenue synergies; changes in technology or products that may be more difficult, costly, or less effective than anticipated; the Company’s ability to identify and address increased cybersecurity risks, including as a result of employees working remotely; inability of Seacoast’s risk management framework to manage risks associated with the Company’s business; dependence on key suppliers or vendors to obtain equipment or services for the business on acceptable terms, including the impact of supply chain disruptions; reduction in or the termination of Seacoast’s ability to use the online- or mobile-based platform that is critical to the Company’s business growth strategy; the effects of war or other conflicts, including the impacts related to or resulting from Russia’s military action in Ukraine, 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 the Company, including as a result of the Company’s participation in the Paycheck Protection Program (“PPP”); Seacoast’s 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 deferred tax assets could be reduced if estimates of future taxable income from the Company’s operations and tax planning strategies are less than currently estimated and sales of capital stock could trigger a reduction in the amount of net operating loss carryforwards that the Company 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, non-bank financial technology providers, securities brokerage firms, insurance companies, money market and other mutual funds and other financial institutions operating in the Company’s 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; the failure of assumptions underlying the establishment of reserves for possible credit losses.
The risks relating to the merger with Professional Holding Corp. include, without limitation: the diversion of management’s 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 mergers being lower than expected; the risk of deposit and customer attrition; regulatory enforcement and litigation risk; 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.
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 the Company’s annual report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2021 and quarterly reports on Form 10-Q for the quarters ended March 31, 2022, June 30, 2022, and September 30, 2022 under “Special Cautionary Notice Regarding Forward-Looking Statements” and “Risk Factors”, and otherwise in the Company’s 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.
CONTACT:
Taylore Maxey
taylore@sachsmedia.com
(850) 702-9804
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