One of the region’s largest community banks sold in $295M deal

NAPLES — One of the largest community banks in the region, Naples-based First Florida Integrity Bank, has been sold.

Dallas-based First Foundation Inc., a publicly traded financial services company with two wholly-owned operating subsidiaries, First Foundation Advisors and First Foundation Bank, acquired TGR Financial Inc., First Florida’s holding company. TGR Financial will merge into First Foundation in an all-stock transaction valued at approximately $295 million, or $15.23 per TGR Financial share based on the closing price of First Foundation’s common stock on May 28, according to a statement.

First Florida, founded in 2009, initially as First National Bank of the Gulf Coast, had $2.3 billion in assets through March 31, according to Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. data. A Florida state-chartered bank, First Florida has seven branch offices spread across Southwest Florida.

TGR Financial Chairman and CEO Gary Tice — who launched the bank with former State Sen. Garrett Richter, R-Naples — will join the First Foundation board of directors after the deal closes. The acquisition, pending regulatory approvals and the OK from First Foundation stockholders and TGR Financial shareholders, is expected to close in the second half of 2021.

“We are pleased that we have aligned with an organization that will expand resources to our clients, offering First Foundation’s integrated banking and wealth management services through our local team,” Tice says in the statement. “Because of its financial strength, profitable history and with much of its growth still before it, First Foundation makes for an ideal partner for our clients, employees, and shareholders.”

For First Foundation, meanwhile, the acquisition will increase the bank’s total assets to some $9.4 billion on a pro forma basis as of March 31, the release states.

“This strategic acquisition provides First Foundation an excellent opportunity to expand into a highly desirable market,” First Foundation CEO Scott Kavanaugh says in the statement. “First Florida Integrity Bank has built a valuable banking franchise and we are committed to continuing its legacy by serving the needs of all its clients and enhancing its offering with our broad platform of services, as well as supporting programs available to local nonprofits in the bank’s local communities. This acquisition highlights our desire to continue growing our business in markets with attractive demographic and economic trends and we are excited to have a regional presence spanning from coast to coast.”

This is sixth acquisition for First Foundation. The bank acquired Premier Business Bank in Los Angeles on Dec. 19, 2017; Community 1st Bank in the Greater Sacramento area on Nov. 10, 2017; two branches in Seal Beach and Laguna Hills from Pacific Western Bank on Dec. 12, 2016; Pacific Rim Bank in Honolulu on June 16, 2015; and Desert Commercial Bank in Palm Desert on Aug. 15, 2012.