Seacoast Banking Corporation of Florida Announces Pricing of Registered Direct Public Offering

STUART, Fla., Nov. 6, 2013 /PRNewswire/ -- Seacoast Banking Corporation of Florida (the "Company") (NASDAQ-NM: SBCF), the holding company for Seacoast National Bank, announced today that the registered direct public offering of 34,883,721 shares of its common stock has priced at $2.15 per share for gross proceeds of approximately $75 million, before deducting placement agent fees and estimated offering expenses. The Company has entered into definitive purchase agreements to sell the shares directly to investors.

(Logo: http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20050916/SEACOASTLOGO )

The closing of the offering is expected to occur on or about November 12, 2013, with a delayed closing for one purchaser that will require regulatory approval.  In this regard, the purchase of $25 million of shares by a single investor in the offering is subject to regulatory approval by the Federal Reserve, which approval is anticipated to be received in December 2013.  The Company intends to use the net proceeds of this offering to redeem all of the 2,000 shares of its Fixed Rate Cumulative Perpetual Preferred Stock, Series A, originally issued to the United States Department of the Treasury pursuant to the Capital Purchase Program as part of its Troubled Asset Relief Program. Additionally, the remainder of the proceeds will be used to support the Company's growth plans, investments in, or extensions of credit to, the Company's subsidiaries, investments in securities and other general corporate purposes.

Hovde Group, LLC acted as the placement agent in connection with this registered direct public offering.

The shares of common stock are being offered pursuant to a shelf registration statement and accompanying base prospectus (File No. 333-185660), which was declared effective by the United States Securities and Exchange Commission (the "SEC") on February 14, 2013, and a prospectus supplement.  This press release is for informational purposes only, and shall not constitute an offer to sell, or a solicitation of an offer to buy, nor shall there be any sale of these securities in any state or jurisdiction in which such an offer, solicitation or sale would be unlawful prior to registration or qualification under the securities laws of such state or jurisdiction. Copies of the final prospectus supplement and the accompanying base prospectus relating to this offering may be obtained at the SEC's website at http://www.sec.gov or by request at Hovde Group, LLC, Attention: David Magli, General Counsel and Chief Operating Officer, 1629 Colonial Parkway, Inverness, IL 60067, by telephone at 855-400-0802, or by email at [email protected].

About Seacoast Banking Corporation of Florida
Seacoast Banking Corporation of Florida is a financial services company and a registered bank holding company with approximately $2.1 billion in assets and $1.7 billion in deposits as of September 30, 2013, based in Stuart, Florida. Incorporated in 1986, the Company provides integrated financial services including commercial and retail banking, wealth management, and mortgage services to our customers through our locally-branded wholly-owned subsidiary bank, Seacoast National Bank. More information about the Company is available at http://www.seacoastbanking.net.

Cautionary Notice Regarding Forward-Looking Statements

This press release contains "forward-looking statements" within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933 and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, which are intended to be protected by the safe harbor provided therein.  Such statements include, without limitation, our use of proceeds and our ability to redeem the Series A Preferred Stock and our growth plans.

Forward-looking statements include statements with respect to our beliefs, plans, objectives, goals, expectations, anticipations, estimates and intentions, and involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors, which may be beyond our control, and which may cause the actual results, performance or achievements of the Company to be materially different from future results, performance or achievements expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements. You should not expect us to update any forward-looking statements. 

You can identify these forward-looking statements through our use of words such as "may," "will," "anticipate," "assume," "should," "support", "indicate," "would," "believe," "contemplate," "expect," "estimate," "continue," "further", "point to," "project," "could," "intend" or other similar words and expressions of the future.  These forward-looking statements may not be realized due to a variety of factors.

All written or oral forward-looking statements attributable to us are expressly qualified in their entirety by this cautionary notice, including, without limitation, those risks and uncertainties described in our annual report on Form 10-K/A for the year ended December 31, 2012 and subsequent quarterly reports on Form 10-Q for the quarters ended March 31, 2013 and June 30, 2013, under "Special Cautionary Notice Regarding Forward-Looking Statements" and "Risk Factors," "Management's Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations" and otherwise in our SEC reports and filings.  Such reports are available upon request from the Company, or from the Securities and Exchange Commission, including through the SEC's Internet website at http://www.sec.gov.

SOURCE Seacoast Banking Corporation of Florida