Polk County bank expands into Texas, Colorado with $2B purchase

SouthState Corp. has purchased a Texas chain of banks in all-stock deal worth nearly $2 billion.

The Winter Haven-based bank bought Independent Bank Group, expanding its reach into several major metropolitan markets in both Texas and Colorado.

In a statement to investors Monday, SouthState says Independent operates in Dallas-Fort Worth, Austin and Houston as well as the Colorado Front Range, which includes Denver.

As of March 31, the McKinney, Texas, bank had approximately $18.9 billion in total assets, $15.7 billion in total deposits and $14.6 billion in total loans, the statement says.

Combined, the two banks will have $65 billion in assets, $55 billion in deposits and $48 billion in gross loans.

The sale has been approved by both board of directors but still needs the approval of shareholders and regulators, according to the statement.

Here are the numbers for the deals as broken down in Monday’s announcement:

“Independent Bank Group shareholders will receive 0.60 shares of SouthState common stock for each outstanding share of Independent Bank Group common stock. Based on SouthState's closing stock price of $80.85 as of May 17, this equates to a per share value of $48.51 and an aggregate transaction value of approximately $2 billion.”

As part of the agreement, Independent Bank Group chairman and CEO David Brooks and lead independent director G. Stacy Smith will join both the SouthState Corp. board and the SouthState Bank board upon the completion of the transaction.

The deal is expected to close in the first quarter of next year.

Reuters reports that Independent Bank Group will pay SouthState a termination fee of $60.9 million or SouthState will pay Independent Bank $186 million if the deal falls through.

According to its website, Independent Bank Group, which operates as Independent Financial, was founded 35 years ago in a small town north of Dallas and has grown to over 90 financial centers across Texas and Colorado.

Polk County-based SouthState came into being in 2020 when CenterState Bank and South State Bank merged. Today, before the addition of Independent, the bank has 240 branches in Alabama, Florida, Georgia, North Carolina, South Carolina and Virginia.