BB&T to Acquire Fla. Premium Finance Co.

BB&T Corporation of Winston-Salem, N.C. announced plans to buy insurance premium finance company Southeastern Fidelity Corporation (SEFCO) of Tallahassee, Fla., in a stock swap. Terms were not disclosed.

BB&T will combine the 5-year-old firm with Prime Rate Premium Finance Corporation Inc., the Florence, S.C.-based premium finance business BB&T acquired in 1994. The combined firm will continue to operate as a wholly owned subsidiary of Branch Banking and Trust Company under the Prime Rate name.

“Partnering with SEFCO complements BB&T’s recent banking and insurance agency expansion into the lucrative Florida market,” said Clarke Starnes, BB&T’s manager of Specialized Lending. “Combining the resources and expertise from these two companies will allow us to strengthen our position as one of the leading insurance premium finance businesses in the markets in which we operate.”

BB&T Corporation acquired Tallahassee-based Regional Financial Corporation, parent company of real estate lender First South Bank, in mid- September. The $271.5 million acquisition gave BB&T entry into the Sunshine State. BB&T Insurance Services acquired Landrum-Yaeger & Associates Inc. of Tallahassee on Nov. 1.

The SEFCO transaction, which is subject to regulatory approval, is expected to be completed in the first quarter of 2003.

SEFCO provides insurance premium financing for consumers and businesses in Florida, Georgia, North Carolina and Virginia. Its 12 employees will become part of the combined company and the SEFCO headquarters in Tallahassee will become Prime Rate’s Florida regional headquarters.

Prime Rate Premium Finance Corporation provides insurance premium financing and services through insurance agents to a wide customer base in the Carolinas, Virginia, Maryland, Pennsylvania, West Virginia, Tennessee, Kentucky, Alabama, Georgia and Washington, D.C.

Topics Florida Mergers & Acquisitions Virginia