Wintrust Financial Corporation (WTFC) is continuing to build its presence in the Chicago area with the acquisition of Suburban Illinois Bancorp and its subsidiary, Suburban Bank & Trust Company, for approximately $12.5 million in cash for all the outstanding shares of Suburban's common stock.
The deal to acquire Suburban Bank & Trust builds on Wintrust’s recently announced acquisition of Chicago-based North Bank for approximately $17 million. Founded in 1970, North Bank has two banking locations in the Chicago area, one in the River North and on the Streeterville neighborhoods.
Suburban Bank & Trust was founded in 1976 and currently operates ten banking locations in Chicago and its suburbs.
As of Dec. 31, 2014, Suburban Bank & Trust had approximately $470 million in assets, approximately $297 million in loans and approximately $411 million in deposits.
"This transaction provides a wonderful opportunity to expand into the desirable Elmhurst market in a meaningful way and complement our growing presence in other suburban markets,” Edward Wehmer, Wintrust’s president and CEO, said.
“We look forward to continuing with the community banking approach that SBT has established and to providing their customer base with an expanded array of products and services,” Wehmer added. “Upon completion of the transaction, several of Wintrust's community banks will have branches that share market areas with existing Suburban branches. We are in the process of evaluating those overlaps, and expect to combine approximately six branches during the second half of 2015.”
The transaction is subject to approval by banking regulators and Suburban's shareholders, and certain closing conditions, the companies said in a release.
"This is a great opportunity to partner with a successful organization that shares a similar philosophy of offering customers highly personalized customer-oriented retail and commercial banking services,” Donald O’Day, president of Suburban, said.
"The transaction allows us to continue focusing on serving our customers, while at the same time providing our customers with access to a wider range of products and services,” O’Day added. “We see many benefits for our customers and shareholders and we look forward to joining forces with the Wintrust family.”
The companies said that the transaction is expected to close late in the second quarter or early in the third quarter of 2015 and is not expected to have a material effect on Wintrust's 2015 earnings per share.
