The $4.5 billion-asset First Citizens Bancorp. Inc. of Columbia, S.C., has its third acquisition deal in its home state in recent months.
The new one is for Summit Financial Corp. of Greenville. First Citizens said Monday that it had agreed to pay $99 million in cash for the $321 million-asset company. The deal, which values Summit at $22 a share, is expected to close in the third quarter.
Just five months ago First Citizens announced that it would pay $40 million for the $125 million-asset People’s Community Capital Corp. of Aiken, S.C. And at yearend it said it would buy three branches, including $16 million of deposits, from Mutual Savings Bank of Hartsville, S.C., leaving the $63 million-asset thrift with just one branch.
The People’s and Mutual deals are both to close this quarter. The three deals would bring First Citizens close to the $13.8 billion-asset South Financial Group, the market leader, in South Carolina deposits.
South Financial had a 8.42% share of the deposit market at mid-2004, according to Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. figures. Deposits from the pending deals would raise First Citizens’ share to about 8.30%.
But First Citizens is not relying solely on deals. In the last year it has added opened five new branches in South Carolina and increased its assets by $230 million.
South Financial, which has long been South Carolina’s dominant bank, has been focusing on expansion in Florida, where it has announced three deals in the last year alone.
First Citizens is paying up for its deals — 2.58 times book value for People’s Community, 2.95 times book for Summit. Last year the average for bank purchases was 2.05 times book, according to Highline Data Bank Services
But First Citizens has the cash. Its very thinly traded stock is valued at $556 per share.
Nearly 60% of the outstanding shares are owned by two brothers, Frank and Lewis Holding. They also own about 37% of the common stock and 52% of the class B stock of the $13.3 billion-asset First Citizens Bancshares Inc. of Raleigh, N.C. (Lewis Holding is its chairman and chief executive.)
