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Royal Credit Union President/CEO Brandon Riechers said Thursday the acquisition of Lake Area Bank will close by the end of August.
The bank recently posted on its website that the White Bear Lake, Stillwater and Hugo branches will be closed on Aug. 27 to allow for their conversion to Royal branches.
Last August, the $4.2 billion, Eau Claire, Wis.-based credit union inked a definitive agreement to acquire the $407 million Lake Area Bank in Linstrom, Minn., pending regulatory and shareholder approvals.
The deal was initially structured as a "whole bank acquisition," which the Minnesota Department of Commerce objected to, Riechers said. After the credit union and bank restructured the deal as an acquisition agreement, however, the MDC said in April that it would not object to it, Riechers said.
Brandon Riechers The FDIC said it approved the acquisition deal on June 21.
The restructured agreement includes Royal's purchase of the bank's White Bear Lake, Stillwater, and Hugo locations and the credit union's acquisition of the majority of Land Area's business banking portfolio and mortgage division.
On July 12, Ameri Financial Group Inc. announced it signed a definitive agreement with Waseca Bancshares, Inc., to acquire the charter of Waseca Bancshares' subsidiary Lake Area Bank. The agreement also called for Ameri Financial to purchase Lake Area Bank's branches in Linstrom and Forest Lake, which will be merged with the $368 million First Resource Bank in Lino Lakes, Minn.
On July 19, Royal announced that it was moving its Oak Park Heights, Minn., branch to the Lake Area Bank branch in Stillwater, which will reopen as a Royal branch on Aug. 29.
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