Bank of the Ozarks Incorporated has said that its wholly-owned bank subsidiary, Bank of the Ozarks, has entered into a purchase and assumption agreement including loss share arrangements with the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) to purchase substantially all of the assets and to assume substantially all of the deposits and other liabilities of Woodlands Bank of Bluffton, South Carolina.
In this transaction, Bank of the Ozarks assumed approximately $350m in deposits and acquired approximately $390m in assets including approximately $275m of loans and approximately $85m of investment securities.
Through the loss share provisions of the purchase and assumption agreement, the FDIC will reimburse Bank of the Ozarks for 80% of the losses it incurs on the disposition of loans and foreclosed real estate. The net assets were purchased from the FDIC at a discount of $54.4m.
George Gleason, chairman and CEO of Bank of the Ozarks, said: “We are pleased to enter South Carolina and Alabama, have a full-service banking office in North Carolina for the first time, and expand our presence in Georgia. This acquisition provides Bank of the Ozarks an entree for further expansion into these states.
“As we have looked at various FDIC-assisted transactions, we have considered some transactions as having more strategic attributes and other transactions as being more financial in nature. This transaction is largely financial in nature although it does afford us the strategic advantage of expanding our presence in Georgia and gives us full-service banking operations in three more states, including North Carolina in which we have operated a loan production office for many years.”