Seacoast Banking Corp. of Florida in Stuart has released to its investors $200 million in capital it was holding in escrow because it did not place the winning bid for Riverside National Bank in Fort Pierce, Fla.
Though the $2.2 billion-asset Seacoast never explicitly said the money was earmarked to absorb Riverside, one of its rivals, it said in a press release Monday that the "winning bidder and its bid included two other failed banks in which the company had no interest."
TD Bank of Wilmington, Del., a unit of Toronto-Dominion Bank, on Friday purchased the $3.4 billion-asset Riverside, along with the $393.3 million-asset First Federal Bank of North Florida in Palatka and the $90.5 million-asset AmericanFirst Bank of Clermont, Fla.
Dennis S. Hudson 3rd, Seacoast's chairman and chief executive officer, said in a press release that the company will focus on trying to gain market share as the remaining large community bank on Florida's Treasure Coast.
"Today we launch an aggressive campaign designed to communicate our unique position to help us benefit from the disruption we anticipate from the Riverside National Bank failure," Hudson said.
Though the $200 million was contingent capital for a specific acquisition, Seacoast also raised $50 million of permanent capital last week.
