He founded a Miami bank in the middle of the financial crisis. Now it’s being acquired
It was the worst of times — or so it seemed.
It was 2009, and Eddy Arriola, a former tech entrepreneur from a prominent local Cuban-American family, had decided to start a bank. He named it Apollo, after the Greek God of prophecy. Few believed that founding a community-minded financial institution at the height of the financial crisis would survive.
Ten years — and one fully recovered market — later, Arriola’s decision seems prophetic.
On Tuesday, Apollo announced it was being acquired by Tampa-based Suncoast Credit Union for an undisclosed sum. The transaction is expected to close in 2020. Existing Apollo customers will join the credit union, but will continue to receive the same types of services.
The news marks the largest bank acquisition by a credit union in U.S. history, and the 12th acquisition of its kind in Florida. Suncoast has more than $10 billion in assets, while Apollo has $746 million.
As part of the agreement, Arriola, 47, will remain as Suncoast’s South Florida market president. The Apollo team will also remain in place.
Suncoast plans to keep the five existing branches Apollo Bank has in Brickell, Coral Gables, Doral, Hialeah and Kendall. Suncoast also has regulatory permission for future expansion into 18 additional counties.
“Most of the time, this kind of announcement is about consolidation, eliminating competition, and laying off people,” Arriola said in an interview from Apollo’s south Brickell headquarters. “With Suncoast it was, ‘How can we create more jobs, how can we get more involved in the community?’ They believe in what they do [as a credit union] and so it was, ‘How can they spread this, their good products and services?’ I drank the Kool-Aid really quick.”
Suncoast president and CEO Kevin Johnson said his company was looking to make a splash in the booming South Florida market, and found the right fit with Apollo.
“They share Suncoast’s values,” Johnson said. “They share the same sense of duty to the community. They’re also a very healthy bank, and a pretty good size, with some great locations.”
Apollo cemented itself as a strong local player over the years after acquiring two community banks. Arriola said he has always striven to manage the bank conservatively even after it went after acquisition targets.
But the opportunity from Suncoast was too good to pass up.
“For existing customers, it’s good news,” he said. “The same team is going to be around, just wearing a different jersey. But we’re going to have a bigger investment in technology, a stronger institution behind us, and probably the savings of Suncoast will be passed directly on to them.
“In terms of the community, you have a company with an 85-year reputation for being community involved. They’ve built a great reputation throughout the state of Florida. For the next 10 years and beyond, you’re going to have an organization like that start to develop roots in this community.”
Arriola, a Miami native whose father, Joe, is a former Miami city manager, said Suncoast sees the South Florida market as a booming one, now that the city has become “what we all thought it was capable of becoming.”
“Every day people across the world wake up, say it’s too cold, I want to be in Miami,” he said. “The No. 1 driver [of this market] is just people moving here. It has truly become an international city, so foreign capital feels comfortable doing business here. We have a lot of culture, a lot of really smart people — and we’re governed by U.S. laws and U.S. courts. For all the ways you can knock the U.S., it’s still the No. 1 country to do business with in the entire world.”
This story was originally published December 3, 2019 at 1:13 PM.
