Alston & Bird client Charter Financial Corporation has entered into a definitive agreement to be acquired by CenterState Bank Corporation for $360.1 million.
The purchase of Charter, which is headquartered in West Point, GA, and has approximately $1.6 billion in assets, will give Florida-based CenterState its first entry in commercial banking in the Georgia and Alabama markets, where Charter’s banking subsidiary, CharterBank, has 22 branch offices.
Upon completion of the transaction, the combined company will have $12 billion in total assets, $8 billion in gross loans, and $9.5 billion in deposits.
The merger is expected to close in the fourth quarter of 2018, after receipt of regulatory and shareholder approvals, as well as satisfaction of customary closing conditions.
Alston & Bird is a leader in bank and thrift M&A. In 2017, the firm ranked fourth in deal volume with 13 transactions and ninth in deal value of $1.295 billion among more than 100 bank and thrift legal advisors tracked by S&P Global Market Intelligence (formerly SNL Financial).
Advising Charter is an Alston & Bird team led by partners Mark Kanaly and Lesley Solomon, senior associate David Park, and associate Will Hooper (Financial Services & Products); and partners Blake MacKay and John Shannon and associate Meredith Gage (Employee Benefits & Executive Compensation).