Seacoast to enter Miami with purchase of Apollo Bank

Seacoast Banking Corp. of Florida in Stuart will enter Miami through its pending purchase of Apollo Bancshares in Miami. 

The $9.7 billion-asset Seacoast said in a press release Tuesday that it will pay $168.3 million for the $1 billion-asset Apollo. The deal is expected to close early in the fourth quarter. 

Apollo has five branches, $928 million of deposits and $665 million of loans. The bank attempted to sell itself to Suncoast Credit Union in Tampa, Fla., in late 2019 but the deal was called off during the early days of the coronavirus pandemic. 

Apollo “is a customer-focused franchise with an outstanding reputation for service excellence and deep customer relationships in this important market,” Charles Shaffer, Seacoast’s chairman and CEO, said in the release. 

“We see a great opportunity to grow our presence and expand our position in South Florida by complementing Apollo’s strengths with Seacoast’s innovation and breadth of offerings," Shaffer added. 

Eddy Arriola, Apollo’s chairman and CEO, will become Seacoast’s Miami-Dade market executive.

Seacoast said it expects the deal to be 8% accretive to its 2023 earnings per share. It should take a little more than two years for Seacoast to earn back an expected 2.5% dilution to its tangible book value. 

Seacoast plans to cut about 39% of Apollo's annual noninterest expenses. The company expects to incur about $16 million of merger-related expenses.

Piper Sandler and Alston & Bird advised Seacoast. Keefe Bruyette & Woods and Fenimore, Kay, Harrison advised Apollo.