Polk County bank completes $2 billion acquisition of Texas firm

Polk County-based SouthState Corp. has closed on its purchase of the Independent Bank Group, a deal that allows SouthState to expand into Texas and Colorado and grow its assets to about $65 billion.

The deal closed Jan. 1.

SouthState first announced the merger in May, saying the all-stock deal would be worth $2 billion.

McKinney, Texas-based Independent Bank Group had, according to the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp., 102 branches in Texas and Colorado operating as Independent Financial.

According to Independent’s website Thursday, customers will see not see any changes to how they bank with company and should continue to use local branches “unless notified otherwise.”

In an FAQ on the site, Independent tells customers that it expects its transition into SouthState to be complete and its name to change in the second quarter of this year.

According to a filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission Thursday morning, as part of the agreement three directors will be added to the boards of SouthState and SouthState Bank, increasing the size of each to 15 members.

The new directors are David R. Brooks, Independent’s former chairman and CEO; Janet Froetscher a former Independent director; and G. Stacy Smith, a former lead director at Independent.

SouthState, based in Winter Haven, was created in 2020 when CenterState Bank and South State Bank merged.

Before the addition of Independent, the company had, according to the FDIC, 271 branches spread out across Alabama, Florida, Georgia, North Carolina, South Carolina and Virginia.

The FDIC reports that as of Sept. 30 SouthState employed 5,144 and its total assets were $46.07 billion.

Independent, the FDIC reports, had 1,456 employees and its total assets were $18.57 billion as of Sept. 30.