Seacoast Banking Corp. of Florida in Stuart is acquiring Drummond Banking Co. in a $173 million deal that would bolster its operations in the northern reaches of the Sunshine State.
With the acquisition Seacoast would enter Gainesville, home to the University of Florida, and neighboring markets. Drummond, based in Chiefland, Florida, operates 18 branches in the northern region of the state.
The $10.9 billion-asset Seacoast is a prolific buyer of banks: It has acquired nine banks since 2017, including
Drummond has $1 billion of assets, $932 million of deposits and $543 million of loans. Its sale to Seacoast is expected to close in the fourth quarter, as is Seacoast's deal for Apollo. Seacoast has roughly doubled its asset size since 2017.
“We see great opportunity … to grow our presence and expand our position in the state,” Charles Shaffer, Seacoast's chairman and CEO, said in a press release announcing the deal after markets closed Wednesday.
Seacoast expects the Drummond deal to be 8.6% accretive to earnings per share in 2023, with “modest” dilution of tangible book value per share to be earned back in less than two years.
