Merger of Georgia and Texas banks finalized with combined $17 billion in assets

The merger of Georgia-based State Bank with a Houston, Texas, bank is final.

Cadence Bancorporation, the holding company of Candence Bank N.A., announced Wednesday it has completed its merger with State Bank Financial Corp., according to a news release. The deal was first announced in May,

State Bank will operate as a division of Cadence Bank until a systems conversion, which is scheduled for February 2019. After that happens, all State Bank offices will operate as Cadence Bank “across its entire footprint” which includes Texas, Georgia, Florida, Alabama, Mississippi and Tennessee, the release said. State Bank’s holding company was based in Atlanta, while its banking office was based in Macon.

In connection with the merger, State Bank Chairman Joe Evans joined the Cadence board of directors as vice chairman, State Bank CEO and Vice Chairman Tom Wiley joined the Cadence board of directors as a director and the Cadence Bank board of directors as chairman and State Bank director Virginia Hepner joined the Cadence board of directors.

“Today, we celebrate the culmination of our combined efforts and warmly welcome State Bank customers and associates,” Cadence Bancorporation Chairman/CEO Paul B. Murphy Jr. said in the release. “We welcome Joe, Tom and Virginia to Cadence, and we look forward to their active participation and insights as we bring together two great institutions.”

In December, Cadence announced that the merger would create an organization with $17 billion in assets, $13 billion in loans and $14 billion in deposits.

Cadence Bancorporation (NYSE:CADE), is a regional bank holding company with $11.8 billion in assets as of Sept. 30, 2018, and the State Bank franchise on the same date had assets of $4.9 billion. Cadence, which has 1,800 employees operates 98 branches in Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Mississippi, Tennessee and Texas, and customers have access to more than 55,000 ATMs.

Back on July 24, 2009, State Bank took over the six banking offices of failed Macon-based Security Bank that were shut down the same day by state and federal regulators. Over the years, State Bank acquired several other banking organizations. Evans headed the recapitalization effort and brought investors together to finance the bank acquisitions.