Polk's SouthState selling 170 branches for $475 million

SouthState Corp. has reached a deal to sell 170 of its branches across six states to a New York real investment firm for nearly a half-billion dollars.

The buyer is Blue Owl Real Estate Capital, which is paying $475 million for the properties in Alabama, Florida, Georgia, North Carolina, South Carolina and Virginia.

The Polk County-based bank announced the sale in a filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission Monday morning and says in the filing that it is not closing the branches but leasing them back.

The deal is expected to close in the first quarter of this year after Blue Owl completes its due diligence. According to the filing, the “number of branches sold, the aggregate purchase price, and the resultant financial impact are subject to revision during the due diligence period prior to closing and could be higher or lower than the numbers cited herein.”

As part of the agreement, SouthState will sign 15-year, triple net leases on each of the branches. The leases will include three five-year renewal options and 2% annual rent increases.

The company says its pre-tax gain from the sale will be approximately $225 million.

In addition to selling off the branches, SouthState writes in the filing that it is evaluating the potential sale of a portion of its securities portfolio that is currently “in a loss position.”

“If such a securities sale were consummated, the expected loss from such a sale could offset some or all of the gain realized on the branch sales.”

Winter Haven-based SouthState was created in 2020 when CenterState Bank and South State Bank merged. Earlier this month, it closed on the $2 billion purchase of the Independent Bank Group in Texas.

SouthState, according to its profile with the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp., currently operates 372 branches in eight states.

It writes in the SEC filing that “aggregate first year rent payments under the lease agreements will be approximately $36 million pretax, with GAAP rent expense of approximately $40 million under lease accounting standards.”

The expenses, the company says, “will be partially offset by the elimination of approximately $8 million in depreciation expense on the buildings.”

Blue Owl currently has $235 billion in assets under management according to its website. Its real estate division has $44.1 billion in assets under management and owns about 2,060 assets.