Carolina Financial in S.C. to Acquire 13 First Community Branches

Carolina Financial in Charleston, S.C., has agreed to acquire 13 branches in the Carolinas and additional assets from First Community Bancshares in Bluefield, Va.

Carolina Financial will purchase 10 branches in North Carolina, three offices in South Carolina and a loan production office. The branches hold about $232 million in deposits and $59 million in loans, Carolina Financial said in an investor presentation.

Complete terms of the transaction were not disclosed. Carolina Financial said it's paying a deposit premium of about 3.11% and that it expects the deal to close later this year or in early 2015. First Community said the deal is expected to close in the fourth quarter.

The loans that are being sold are not subject to First Community's loss-share agreement with the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. from its acquisition of the failed Waccamaw Bank, First Community said.

The deal will give Carolina Financial about $1.2 billion in total assets. Carolina Financial said the acquisition will be immediately accretive to its fully diluted earnings per share, excluding one-time deal costs.

The North Carolina branches that are being sold operate under the name First Community Bank and the South Carolina branches use the name Peoples' Community Bank. Carolina Financial will change the name of all the branches to CresCom Bank, the name of its own banking unit.

The $2.6 billion-asset First Community said in a Thursday regulatory filing that the branch sale transaction is "intended to complement" its recent agreement to acquire seven Bank of America branches in Virginia and North Carolina.

Smith Moore Leatherwood is legal counsel to First Community and Nelson Mullins Riley & Scarborough is counsel to Carolina Financial. The companies did not identify their financial advisers.

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