Former Manatee bank, C1, merges with Bank of the Ozarks in $402M deal

Former Manatee bank, C1, merges with Bank of the Ozarks

MANATEE -- The parent company of C1 Bank, an institution that got its start in Manatee County 20 years ago, has been purchased by Bank of the Ozarks for $402.5 million.

The deal, announced earlier this week, gives Little Rock-based Bank of the Ozarks a bigger hold in the Florida market. In adding C1's 32 branches to its portfolio, it quadruples the number of its locations across the state. In terms of total deposits, it becomes the state's 31st biggest bank, up from 57th according to the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation.

The acquisition comes after weeks of speculation that C1 would be purchased. With $1.7 billion in total assets, the bank was the 18th largest Florida-based bank in the state. Bank of the Ozarks, which operates throughout the south and in New York and California, boasts $9.3 billion in total assets.

C1, which started life as Community Bank of Manatee in 1995, will be folded into the Bank of the Ozarks brand. Headquartered in Lakewood Ranch until 2012, C1 moved its corporate operations to St. Petersburg three years ago. The bank made an initial public stock offering in 2014 in a bid to raise $50 million in working capital.

The bank gained a reputation for technological innovation, for offering a good work environment and for its small business lending. Ken Thomas, an independent bank consultant and economist based in Miami, said those factors plus the bank's $1 billion-plus asset portfolio made it an attractive acquisition.

Thomas also speculated that the fact that Florida is a fast-growing state might have brought the bigger Arkansas bank calling.

"All those things combined have made banking charters here more valuable," Thomas said. "Everybody wants to get a piece of Florida."

C1 is one of several banking institutions Bank of the Ozarks has acquired this year. In October, it purchased the parent company of Community & Southern Bank for $799.6 million. It spent $64.7 million in May to buy Bank of the Carolinas.

C1 had been growing aggressively prior to its merger with Bank of the Ozarks. William Sedgeman, Jr. founded Manatee Community Bank in 1995. In the midst of the recession in 2009, four investors made a major capital investment in the bank and renamed it C1 Bank. At the time, C1 was worth about $260 million.

Following the investor buy in, the bank acquired a bigger book of business by purchasing the First Community Bank of America in 2011 and The Palm Bank in 2012. It also took on $247 million in assets of First Community Bank of Southwest Florida in 2013 after the FDIC declared First Community a failed bank.

An attempted merger between C1 and Miami-Dade-based U.S. Century Bank in 2012 failed to gel, but C1 still established a branch in that county.

According to a company press release, C1's CEO, Trevor Burgess, will now be chief innovation officer of Bank of the Ozarks and president of its Florida operations. He will also be paid $5.7 million over the next four years as part of the deal, according to a merger filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Burgess said he will use his new position to develop new technology to apply on a national scale.

"Together, with an expanded product set and increased firepower, we will be able to serve an even broader array of businesses and families in the state of Florida," he said.

Once the merger of the two banks is complete, C1 branches will convert to the Bank of the Ozarks name. The merger is expected to be complete by the second quarter of 2016.

Matt M. Johnson, Herald business reporter, can be reached at 941-745-7027 or on Twitter@MattAtBradenton.

This story was originally published November 11, 2015 at 4:48 PM with the headline "Former Manatee bank, C1, merges with Bank of the Ozarks in $402M deal."