Dive Brief:

• Wintrust Financial has agreed to buy Holland, Michigan-based Macatawa Bank in an all-stock deal worth an estimated $510.3 million, the companies announced Monday.

• The transaction, expected to close in the second half of this year, would give Rosemont, Illinois-based Wintrust a brick-and-mortar footprint in Michigan, including Grand Rapids, for the first time.

• Adding Macatawa would push Wintrust’s branch total to nearly 200 and its assets to the brink of $60 billion.

Dive Insight:

By acquiring Macatawa, a $57 billion-asset Wintrust would add 26 branches in Michigan’s Kent, Ottawa and Allegan counties. Until now, the company’s 170 locations have been clustered throughout greater Chicago and southern Wisconsin.

“Macatawa provides an ideal platform to expand into West Michigan with a very solid bank,” Wintrust CEO Timothy Crane said in a Monday press release. “The bank has a strong core deposit base, exceptional asset quality, a client-focused culture and a committed leadership team. Together, we will be a formidable, community-minded competitor to the other banks in the area.”

The transaction stands in contrast to the running narrative that small, often-Midwestern community banks are increasingly selling to credit unions. Wintrust, rather, is a bank holding company that keeps a stable of 15 community bank subsidiaries.

“Wintrust provides Macatawa with the ability to retain and enhance its uniquely personalized consumer and commercial community presence in the West Michigan area by retaining the Macatawa Bank name, its key employees, branches, and a legally constituted community bank board, as a separately chartered bank,” Richard Postma, Macatawa’s board chair, said Monday. “We are confident that this transaction, which combines similar cultures and operating philosophies, will result in a continued community bank that offers all the enhanced services, products and technology of Wintrust to meet the evolving banking needs of our customers.”

Macatawa investors stand to receive $14.85 for each outstanding share they own as part of the transaction, according to the press release.

Macatawa counted $2.7 billion in assets, $2.4 billion in deposits and $1.3 billion in loans as of Dec. 31, the bank said.

“Wintrust’s track record of serving families, individuals and businesses with exemplary products and services make it an attractive partner,” Macatawa CEO Jon Swets said Monday. “This partnership offers our customers, employees and communities the long-term benefits that being part of a successful, growing and caring organization brings.”

In its last major purchase, Wintrust acquired Rothschild & Co.’s U.S. asset-management and risk-based investment businesses in April 2023.

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