Bank of the Ozarks in Little Rock, Ark., has agreed to buy C1 Financial in St. Petersburg, Fla.
The $9.3 billion-asset Bank of the Ozarks said in a press release Monday that it will pay $402.5 million, or $25 a share, in stock for the $1.7 billion-asset C1 Financial. The deal is expected to close in the first quarter or early in the second quarter.
Bank of the Ozarks said it expects the deal to be immediately accretive to its tangible book value per share. The transaction should be accretive to Bank of the Ozarks' diluted earnings per common share by 2-4 cents, including transaction costs, for the first 12 months after the transaction closes. The deal should be accretive by 7-10 cents a share for the next 12-month period.
Trevor Burgess, C1's president and chief executive, will become Bank of the Ozarks' chief innovation officer and president of the company's Florida operations. "In my role as chief innovation officer, I will have an opportunity to integrate the technology we incubated in C1 Labs and develop new technology applications on a national scale," Burgess said in the release.
The deal is Bank of the Ozarks' 15th acquisition since March 2010. The company agreed last month to buy Community & Southern Holdings in Atlanta.
C1 was advised by Sandler O'Neill; Davis Polk & Wardwell; and Shutts & Bowen. Bank of the Ozarks was advised by Kutak Rock.
