Fidelity Southern Corporation, holding company for Fidelity Bank, today announced that the Bank has entered into a definitive agreement to assume approximately $200 million of deposits at a deposit premium of 1.5% from six branches of CenterState Bank of Florida, N.A., which were recently acquired by CenterState pursuant to its holding company's acquisition of First Southern Bancorp, Inc.  The branches are located in counties surrounding Jacksonville and Orlando, Florida, including Duval,Orange, Volusia, Seminole, and St. Johns Counties.  The Bank will also acquire five of the branch offices.

Jim Miller, Fidelity's Chairman, said, "Fidelity has been in Florida since 1992 and services $689 millionin residential construction, commercial, SBA, indirect automobile, and mortgage loans originated across the state.  This base will significantly help in building out our Florida branch operations."

Fidelity's President, Palmer Proctor, said, "Fidelity intends to opportunistically look for other branches in the corridor from Jacksonville to Tampa.  In addition to the opening of a lending office in Orlando, we plan to establish Trust and Wealth Management offices this year to complement what will be a nine branch Florida network, with three offices in Orlando and a total of six offices in Jacksonville – St. Johns."

The completion of the transaction is subject to customary closing conditions, including receipt of all necessary regulatory approvals, and is expected to be completed in the third quarter of 2014.