SouthState Corp., a Winter Haven, Fla.-based bank that operates about 20 offices in North Carolina, is buying McKinney, Texas-based Independent Bank Group for about $2 billion.
Independent has about $19 billion in assets with offices in the Dallas/Fort Worth, Austin and Houston markets in Texas, plus others in Colorado. Regulators and stockholders still need to approve the transaction.
The combined company will have assets of about $65 billion and a market value of $8.2 billion, according to South State.
“With a local, geographic management model, an industry-leading track record on credit and a presence in some of the best markets in the country, Independent Bank Group is a great fit with SouthState,” CEO John Corbett said in a release.
SouthState has its roots in the First National Bank of Orangeburg, South Carolina, which formed in 1933. It later became South Carolina Bank and Trust, then SCB&T and in 2014, South State Bank. It was based in Columbia for many years. From 2004 through June 2020, the bank was led by Robert Hill Jr. Among its purchases was the 2017 acquisition of Charlotte-based Park Sterling Bank for $691 million.
In 2020, Florida-based CenterState Bank had a merger of equals with SouthState, and took on the S.C. bank’s name while the headquarters moved to Winter Haven. Hill became executive chairman in 2020 and left the company in April 2023.
SouthState has offices in the Charlotte, Raleigh and Wilmington markets. Overall, it has about 250 offices in Alabama, Florida, Georgia, North Carolina, South Carolina and Virginia.
