Seacoast Banking Corporation of Florida Chairman, President and CEO Chuck Shaffer said the company will exceed $10 billion in assets following the completion of its acquisition of Apollo Bancshares Inc.

Seacoast has been highly acquisitive in recent years, with three deals in 2021 alone and nine in the last five years. Seacoast's acquisition of Apollo will generate 8% earnings accretion and add over $1 billion to Seacoast's asset total, making it the largest acquisition in the company's history.

Seacoast's acquisition of Apollo is expected to close in the fourth quarter of 2022. Shaffer said the acquisition, in tandem with two transactions Seacoast closed in January, will more than offset the financial impact of the Durbin amendment, a provision of the Dodd-Frank Act that limits the interchange fees that can be charged to merchants when processing debit card transactions and also aims to encourage competition in routing networks. The rule will apply to Seacoast in 2023 once its assets cross $10 billion, Shaffer said.

"This acquisition represents a natural continuation of our M&A strategy by providing Seacoast with meaningful scale in Miami-Dade County, Florida's largest county by population," said Shaffer.

Shaffer said Miami-Dade County is an attractive market with a dynamic international community benefiting from the relocation of financial services and technology services companies from all over the country thanks to its low tax, business-friendly environment. He said Seacoast entered Miami-Dade organically over the last few years as a way of easing into the market prior to its acquisition of Apollo.

"It's an incredible market with $185 billion in deposits dominated by the national banks," said Shaffer. "Our ability to slide in there and bring our credit posture and our capability to that market I think provides a lot of upsides to Seacoast."

Shaffer said Apollo Chairman, President and CEO Eddy Arriola will serve as the combined company's Miami-Dade marketing executive.

"We wanted to partner with Eddy and the Apollo group primarily because they are so well respected in the market," Shaffer said.

Seacoast's focus in Miami-Dade following the acquisition will primarily be on domestic clients in the commercial space, according to Shaffer.

"At the outset [our focus] will be primarily on commercial, commercial real estate, and commercial and investment opportunities in the market," said Shaffer. "Importantly, I think probably the biggest thing we'll bring to the market is our wealth management business. That's been on a tear, really growing in the Seacoast franchise."