Local lawyers from Rogers & Hardin and Bryan Cave are involved in Ameris Bancorp’s plan to raise up to $60 million in a public offering that, Securities and Exchange Commission documents indicate, may be used to fund the purchase of failed banks.
According to a registration statement filed with the SEC on March 26, Ameris plans to sell common stock and use the net proceeds “for general corporate purposes, including to fund possible future acquisitions of other financial services businesses (which may include FDIC-assisted transactions)… .”
Ameris, a financial holding company and the parent company of Ameris Bank, has recent experience with FDIC-assisted transactions in Georgia. In October, it bought Lawrenceville-based American United Bank, which had $85.7 million in loans and $100.3 million in deposits. A month later, Ameris purchased United Security Bank, with branches in Woodstock and Sparta, which had $108.4 million in loans and $140 million in deposits.
Rogers & Hardin was involved in both deals, which included loss-sharing agreements with the FDIC, discounts on the book value of the assets and premiums on the acquired banks’ deposits. The transactions, according to SEC documents, resulted in cash payments from the FDIC to Ameris that totaled about $41.3 million.
If Ameris is looking for failed banks in the areas where it currently has operations— Georgia, Florida, Alabama and South Carolina—it will have plenty to choose from. Since August 2008, 23 Florida banks and 37 Georgia banks have failed, according to information from the FDIC. The FDIC lists four bank failures in Alabama, and none in South Carolina.
This is the first public offering Ameris has made since the early 1990s, according to Dennis J. Zember Jr., the chief financial officer at Ameris. “Our market capitalization now is about $120 million, and it’s been as high as $450 million,” he said. He called the bank’s planned $60 million public offering “significant.”
Ameris did complete a private placement in November 2008, receiving $52 million from the Troubled Asset Relief Program in connection with its sale of preferred stock to the U.S. Treasury, according to SEC documents.
Steven E. Fox and Jody L. Spencer at Rogers & Hardin are representing Ameris in the transaction. Fox, the lead lawyer, declined comment because the registration process is not yet complete. B.T. Atkinson, a partner in Bryan Cave’s Charlotte office, along with Atlanta associates Jonathan Hightower, Robert Klinger and Dustin Hall, represent the underwriters, Keefe, Bruyette & Woods, based in New York.