South State bank buying 12 branches, expanding in Midlands

South State Corp. is buying 12 Bank of America branches mostly in South Carolina, including locations in Batesburg-Leesville, Newberry and Sumter, the company announced Wednesday.

Other sites being purchased are in Orangeburg, Florence, Hartsville, Abbeville and one in Hartwell, Ga.

The purchase price is about $31.6 million, the company said.

Six of the branches are in areas where South State does not have a presence, including Batesburg-Leesville, a town on the western end of Lexington County, said South State chief executive officer Robert R. Hill, Jr.

Overall, the purchase, reached in principle Tuesday, brings South State’s Midlands presence on a closer par to its branches in the Lowcountry and the Upstate, Hill said. “This gives us a stronger presence in central South Carolina,” he said. “It rounds out the presence we already have around South Carolina.”

With this purchase, South State has 104 branches in the Palmetto State, 26 in Georgia and nine in North Carolina, the company said.

Pending regulatory approval, the conversion is to be completed during the third quarter of the year, said Hill, whose bank’s assets are about $8 billion.

South State will hire all the employees currently working at the Bank of America branches, the company said in a news release issued Wednesday.

The bank already has three branches in the capital city area: Gervais Stree, Forest Drive and Clemson Road, Hill said. In Lexington County, South State branches are on Knox Abbott Drive, Sunset Boulevard in the town of Lexington, Columbiana Drive near the regional shopping mall, and soon Batesburg-Leesville.

This story was originally published April 22, 2015 at 12:18 PM with the headline "South State bank buying 12 branches, expanding in Midlands."