Home BancShares to Buy Landmark Bank in Florida

Home BancShares in Conway, Ark., has agreed to buy the parent of Landmark Bank in Fort Lauderdale, Fla.

The $9.8 billion-asset Home said in a press release late Monday that it will pay $88.5 million in cash and stock for the $463 million-asset Giant Holdings. The deal is expected to close in the first quarter.

Giant has six branches, $335 million in loans and $368 million in deposits. The acquisition will put Home above the $10 billion-asset threshold where it will have mandatory stress tests and caps on interchange fees, among other things.

Home had teased out in October that it was in talks to buy a bank in Florida with about $400 million in assets.

The acquisition "allows us to increase our market share in the Ft. Lauderdale area," John W. Allison, Home's chairman, said in the release. "We consider this acquisition a smart deal, and it is immediately accretive to diluted earnings per share, book value and tangible book value."