The $1.5 billion-asset ABC Bancorp of Moultrie, Ga., is buying the $255 million First National Banc Inc. of St. Marys, Ga., for $34.8 million.
The deal, 35% in cash and the rest in stock, was announced Friday and is to close in the fourth quarter.
The purchase will expand ABC's presence on the Atlantic coast and speed up its plans to enter the Jacksonville, Fla., market, said Edwin W. Hortman Jr., its president and chief executive, in a news release. ABC has no East Coast branches south of Brunswick, Ga.; First National's extend from the Georgia-Florida border to south of Jacksonville.
ABC's 12 banking subsidiaries have 37 branches in Georgia, Alabama, and northern Florida. First National has two branches in Orange Park, Fla., and three in Georgia's Camden County; it has the No. 1 deposit market share in St. Marys and the No. 4 share in Orange Park.
