April 2025 | Mike Vogel
United Community Banks’ ambitions in Florida took another step with its pending acquisition of American National Bank, a Broward-based institution with one location and $439 million in assets.
It marked Greenville, S.C.-based United’s third bank acquisition in Florida since 2020. United has $27.4 billion in assets and 202 offices in Alabama, Florida, Georgia, the Carolinas and Tennessee.
The most recent deal saw United agree to buy familyowned ANB Holdings, the parent of the Oakland Park bank, for $80 million in stock.
United paid $116 million in 2023 for First National Bank of South Miami parent First Miami Bancorp and its nearly $1 billion in assets. United in 2020 bought for $180 million Orlando-based Seaside National Bank & Trust parent Three Shores Bancorporation. At the time, Three Shores had $1.8 billion in assets.
"We've been very acquisitive over the last several years,” United CEO Lynn Harton told American Banker last year.
United and ANB say they expect to complete the deal in the second quarter.
United late last year appointed Veronica Flores, formerly president of its Miami-Dade region, chair of its Miami-Dade business. Flores was on the executive team when United acquired First National South Miami. Flores is on the board of the Beacon Council and has volunteered for years with the Florida Bankers Association and its board and committees.
She has been succeeded as United’s Miami-Dade president by Matthew Bruno, formerly Amerant Bank’s market president for Miami-Dade. United’s Florida president, Sharon Thompson, hailed Bruno’s “deep understanding” of the region.
The bank, meanwhile, announced it had beefed up its lending team in central Florida with hires from Cogent Bank, Truist and Regions.