Procurement News Notice |
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| PNN | 3811 |
| Work Detail | More than two-thirds of Georgia Bank & Trust Co. employees – including all branch office staff – will remain in place after South State Bank completes its acquisition early next year. But a little more than 100 positions – mainly back-office support staff, such as accountants and human resources workers – will be eliminated in February. GB&T President Ronald L. Thigpen said Friday that all of the bank’s 376 employees had been notified of their status by the close of business Thursday. Employees whose positions are being eliminated received severance packages based on their position and length of service with the bank, while those remaining received job-offer letters from South State. Thigpen said roughly 30 percent of employees received severance packages, which he said were “very individualized” and “well within, or beyond, industry standards.” “In every case South State has been as generous as they can be in that regard,” Thigpen said. In June, GB&T’s holding company, Augusta-based Southeastern Bank Financial Corp., announced it had agreed to be acquired by Columbia-based South State Corp. in a stock deal valued at $334 million. The merger, set to close Jan. 3, will create a $10.5 billion company with 133 branches in the Carolinas and Georgia, including the 12 banking offices Southeastern operates in Richmond, Columbia and Aiken counties under the GB&T and Southern Bank & Trust brands. The metro Augusta operations will account for roughly 20 percent of the merged company’s business once the deal is sealed and all operations convert to the South State brand. The companies have said no branch offices will close in the merger because their markets do not overlap. On the operations side, however, South State already has back-office facilities in Charleston and Columbia that make GB&T’s operations center in Evans redundant. Thigpen said he believes many employees whose positions are targeted for elimination will have found jobs with other employers or with South State itself – through natural turnover – by the time the layoffs take effect at the end of February. “Obviously, we’ve got great people,” he said. “We know that a number of our folks have already lined up jobs with other companies. By the time we get to end of February, I expect (the job loss) impact to be even less.” |
| Country | United States , Northern America |
| Industry | Financial Services |
| Entry Date | 03 Sep 2016 |
| Source | http://chronicle.augusta.com/news/business/2016-08-26/more-100-jobs-will-be-cut-georgia-bank-merger |
