Seacoast Completes Acquisition of Heartland Bancshares, Inc.

Globe and Mail

11-07-2025

Seacoast Banking Corporation of Florida ('Seacoast' or the 'Company') (NASDAQ: SBCF), the holding company for Seacoast National Bank ('Seacoast Bank'), announced today the completion of its acquisition of Heartland Bancshares, Inc. ('Heartland'), parent company of Heartland National Bank, effective July 11, 2025. The merger of Heartland National Bank with and into Seacoast Bank was also effective on the same date, with Seacoast National Bank being the surviving financial institution.
Under the terms of the merger agreement, Heartland shareholders received a combination of cash and stock, with the final consideration of approximately $111.2 million.
Heartland has had the leading deposit market share in Highlands County for many years, with deposits of approximately $665.9 million and total consolidated net loans of approximately $156.6 million as of March 31, 2025.
'We are delighted to welcome Heartland's customers and associates to Seacoast. Heartland is a customer-focused franchise with an outstanding reputation for service excellence and deep customer relationships,' said Charles M. Shaffer, Seacoast's Chairman and CEO. We see a great opportunity to grow our presence in Central Florida by complementing Heartland's strengths with Seacoast's breadth of offerings. The combined franchise will continue to provide exceptional service for this growing market.'
Transaction Details
Piper Sandler & Co. served as financial advisor and Alston & Bird LLP served as legal counsel to Seacoast. Hovde Group, LLC served as financial advisor and Smith Mackinnon, PA served as legal counsel to Heartland.
About Seacoast Banking Corporation of Florida (NASDAQ: SBCF)
Seacoast Banking Corporation of Florida (NASDAQ: SBCF) is one of the largest community banks headquartered in Florida with approximately $15.7 billion in assets and $12.6 billion in deposits as of March 31, 2025. Seacoast and its subsidiaries provide integrated financial services including commercial and consumer banking, wealth management and mortgage services to customers at over 83 full-service branches across Florida, and through advanced mobile and online banking solutions. Seacoast National Bank is the wholly-owned subsidiary bank of Seacoast Banking Corporation of Florida.
Additional information about Seacoast can be found at www.seacoastbanking.com
Cautionary Notice Regarding Forward-Looking Statements
This press release contains 'forward-looking statements' within the meaning, and protections, of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933, as amended, and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended, including, without limitation, statements about future financial and operating results, cost savings, enhanced revenues, economic and seasonal conditions in the Company's markets, and improvements to reported earnings that may be realized from cost controls, tax law changes, new initiatives and for integration of banks that the Company has acquired, or expects to acquire, , as well as statements with respect to Seacoast's objectives, strategic plans, expectations and intentions and other statements that are not historical facts. Actual results may differ from those set forth in the forward-looking statements.
Forward-looking statements include statements with respect to the Company's beliefs, plans, objectives, goals, expectations, anticipations, assumptions, estimates and intentions about future performance, and involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors, which may be beyond the Company's control, and which may cause the actual results, performance or achievements of Seacoast or Seacoast National Bank ('Seacoast Bank') to be materially different from future results, performance or achievements expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements. You should not expect the Company to update any forward-looking statements.
All statements other than statements of historical fact could be forward-looking statements. You can identify these forward-looking statements through the use of words such as 'may', 'will', 'anticipate', 'assume', 'should', 'support', 'indicate', 'would', 'believe', 'contemplate', 'expect', 'estimate', 'continue', 'further', 'plan', 'point to', 'project', 'could', 'intend', 'target' or other similar words and expressions of the future. These forward-looking statements may not be realized due to a variety of factors, including, without limitation: the impact of current or future economic and market conditions generally (including seasonality) and in the financial services industry, nationally and within Seacoast's primary market areas, including the effects of inflationary pressures, changes in interest rates, slowdowns in economic growth, and the potential for high unemployment rates, as well as the financial stress on borrowers and changes to customer and client behavior and credit risk as a result of the foregoing; potential impacts of adverse developments in the banking industry, including those highlighted by high-profile bank failures, and resulting impacts on customer confidence, deposit outflows, liquidity and the regulatory response thereto (including increases in the cost of our deposit insurance assessments), the Company's ability to effectively manage its liquidity risk and any growth plans, and the availability of capital and funding; governmental monetary and fiscal policies, including interest rate policies of the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve, as well as legislative, tax and regulatory changes including overdraft and late fee caps (if implemented), and including those that impact the money supply and inflation; the risks of changes in interest rates on the level and composition of deposits, loan demand, liquidity and the values of loan collateral, securities, and interest rate sensitive assets and liabilities; interest rate risks, sensitivities and the shape of the yield curve; changes in accounting policies, rules and practices; changes in retail distribution strategies, customer preferences and behavior generally and as a result of economic factors, including heightened or persistent inflation; changes in the availability and cost of credit and capital in the financial markets; changes in the prices, values and sales volumes of residential and commercial real estate, especially as they relate to the value of collateral supporting the Company's loans; the Company's concentration in commercial real estate loans and in real estate collateral in Florida; Seacoast's ability to comply with any regulatory requirements and the risk that the regulatory environment may not be conducive to or may prohibit or delay the consummation of future mergers and/or business combinations, may increase the length of time and amount of resources required to consummate such transactions, and may reduce the anticipated benefit; inaccuracies or other failures from the use of models, including the failure of assumptions and estimates, as well as differences in, and changes to, economic, market and credit conditions; the impact on the valuation of Seacoast's investments due to market volatility or counterparty payment risk, as well as the effect of a decline in stock market prices on our fee income from our wealth management business; statutory and regulatory dividend restrictions; increases in regulatory capital requirements for banking organizations generally; the risks of mergers, acquisitions and divestitures, including Seacoast's ability to continue to identify acquisition targets, successfully acquire and integrate desirable financial institutions and realize expected revenues, revenue synergies and expense savings; changes in technology or products that may be more difficult, costly, or less effective than anticipated; the Company's ability to identify and address increased cybersecurity risks, including those impacting vendors and other third parties which may be exacerbated by developments in generative artificial intelligence; fraud or misconduct by internal or external parties, which Seacoast may not be able to prevent, detect or mitigate; inability of Seacoast's risk management framework to manage risks associated with the Company's business; dependence on key suppliers or vendors to obtain equipment or services for the business on acceptable terms; reduction in or the termination of Seacoast's ability to use the online- or mobile-based platform that is critical to the Company's business growth strategy; the effects of war or other conflicts, acts of terrorism, natural disasters, including hurricanes in the Company's footprint, health emergencies, epidemics or pandemics, or other catastrophic events that may affect general economic conditions and/or increase costs, including, but not limited to, property and casualty and other insurance costs; Seacoast's ability to maintain adequate internal controls over financial reporting; potential claims, damages, penalties, fines, costs and reputational damage resulting from pending or future litigation, regulatory proceedings and enforcement actions; the risks that deferred tax assets could be reduced if estimates of future taxable income from the Company's operations and tax planning strategies are less than currently estimated, the results of tax audit findings, challenges to our tax positions, or adverse changes or interpretations of tax laws; the effects of competition from other commercial banks, thrifts, mortgage banking firms, consumer finance companies, credit unions, non-bank financial technology providers, securities brokerage firms, insurance companies, money market and other mutual funds and other financial institutions; the failure of assumptions underlying the establishment of reserves for expected credit losses; a deterioration of the credit rating for U.S. long-term sovereign debt, actions that the U.S. government may take to avoid exceeding the debt ceiling, and uncertainties surrounding the federal budget and economic policy, including the impact of tariffs and trade policies; the risk that balance sheet, revenue growth, and loan growth expectations may differ from actual results; and other factors and risks described in any of the Company's subsequent reports filed with the SEC and available on its website at www.sec.gov.
The risks relating to the Heartland Bancshares, Inc. merger include, without limitation, the parties' ability to achieve the synergies and value creation contemplated by the merger; the parties' ability to promptly and effectively integrate the businesses of Seacoast and Heartland Bancshares, Inc., including unexpected transaction costs, the costs of integrating operations, severance, professional fees and other expenses; the diversion of management time on issues related to the merger; changes in laws or regulations; the risks of customer and employee loss and business disruption, including, without limitation, as the result of difficulties in maintaining relationships with employees; increased competitive pressures and solicitations of customers and employees by competitors; the difficulties and risks inherent with entering new markets.
All written or oral forward-looking statements attributable to us are expressly qualified in their entirety by this cautionary notice, including, without limitation, those risks and uncertainties described in the Company's annual report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2024 under 'Special Cautionary Notice Regarding Forward-Looking Statements' and 'Risk Factors', and otherwise in the Company's SEC reports and filings. Such reports are available upon request from the Company, or from the Securities and Exchange Commission, including through the SEC's Internet website at www.sec.gov.