Seacoast eyes Miami expansion with $488.6M deal to buy Professional Bank

Dive Brief:

• Stuart, Florida-based Seacoast Bank will buy Professional Bank for roughly $488.6 million in a deal that would further cement its foothold in the Miami area, the banks announced Monday. The transaction is set to close in the first quarter of 2023.
• The $2.7 billion-asset Professional Bank would represent Seacoast’s third major acquisition target of 2022. Seacoast in March agreed to buy Miami-based Apollo Bank in a $168.3 million deal. It then announced in May it would purchase Drummond Community Bank, an 18-branch lender in North Florida, for $173.2 million.
• Acquiring Professional Bank — which targets a clientele of doctors, lawyers and other high-net-worth professionals — would add roughly $2.4 billion in deposits and $2 billion in loans to Seacoast’s balance sheet. It would also add nine South Florida branches to Seacoast’s brick-and-mortar presence.

Dive Insight:

Seacoast is not only initiating deals in 2022 but wrapping them up. The bank closed its acquisitions of Sabal Palm Bank and Business Bank of Florida in January. Seacoast touted a 50-branch footprint when it agreed to buy Apollo Bank. That bank’s five locations, Drummond’s 18, and Professional’s nine may boost Seacoast’s presence to more than 80 locations across Florida after the three deals close.

Professional Bank’s CEO, Abel Iglesias, referenced one of Seacoast’s earlier deals in a statement Monday. 

“When considering Seacoast’s pending transaction with Apollo, this acquisition will join together three customer-focused and service-oriented banks with a focus on getting business accomplished efficiently,” he said. “Professional Bank and Seacoast have closely aligned cultures with shared business values that are focused on maintaining disciplined underwriting and a strict credit culture.”

Iglesias — who has served as Professional’s CEO since February — will become Seacoast’s Miami-Dade regional president once the transaction closes. That could put him over Apollo CEO Eddy Arriola, whom Seacoast said in a previous release would serve as “Miami-Dade market executive” for the bank.

Charles Shaffer, Seacoast’s CEO, called Professional a “strong addition to Seacoast’s breadth of offerings,” noting the transaction would accelerate the bank’s growth strategy.

“With the combined scale, we will bring to market a larger balance sheet, a greater digital product set and the resources to become South Florida’s most competitive community bank,” Shaffer said.

Under the deal, Professional shareholders would receive 0.8909 shares of Seacoast stock for each share of Professional they own. That would put the transaction’s value at $488.6 million, based on Seacoast’s $36.75-per-share closing price from Friday.

Seacoast expects to earn back its tangible book value per share in 2.3 years, with 11.8% accretion in 2023, and 15.4% in 2024, the bank said Monday.