Georgia’s Colony Bank closes $163 million First Reliance deal, picking up a Mount Pleasant branch with $184.5 million in deposits

A Georgia bank now owns the First Reliance branch in Mount Pleasant, one of the bank’s two largest offices by deposits.

Colony Bankcorp Inc., based in Fitzgerald, Ga., completed its merger with Florence-based First Reliance Bancshares Inc. effective Nov. 1, the company said. First Reliance Bank merged into Colony Bank immediately afterward, according to a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Colony valued the stock-and-cash deal at about $163 million when it was announced June 24.

First Reliance shareholders could choose $19.75 in cash or 0.94 Colony share for each share they held, with no more than 80% of the shares converted to stock. Colony said in its quarterly report that it issued about 6.2 million shares and paid about $32.7 million in cash.

The deal adds nine banking locations and gives Colony its first presence in South Carolina, the company said. The combined bank has about $5 billion in assets and locations in Georgia, South Carolina and Florida.

First Reliance’s one physical office in the Charleston area is at 800 S. Shelmore Blvd., according to Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. records. It held $184.5 million in deposits on June 30, about 20% of the bank’s total and second only to its Florence main office, FDIC data show. That is about 0.7% of the $25.6 billion on deposit at Charleston-area bank offices that day, by Charleston Business Report’s calculation.

Colony said First Reliance customers can keep banking as usual through their existing accounts, locations and digital services ahead of a planned systems conversion in mid-2027. First Reliance said its name will stay on its branches “for now,” The Post and Courier reported.

Rick Saunders, First Reliance’s founder and CEO, signed on as Colony Bank’s executive vice chairman, and he and First Reliance director Forrest R. Redden III joined the boards of Colony Bankcorp and Colony Bank, the SEC filing said.

“Colony shares our belief in strong relationships, local leadership, and investing in the communities we serve,” Saunders said in the announcement.

South Carolina-based banks have dropped to about 41 from a peak of 115 in 1997, The Post and Courier reported Nov. 8, citing federal data.