Rosemont, Ill.-based Wintrust Financial Corp. today completed its acquisition of Generations Bancorp Inc., the parent company of Pewaukee-based Foundations Bank, for about $25.1 million.
Wintrust is a financial holding company. It has merged Foundations Bank into another of its subsidiaries, Hartland-based Town Bank, and will operate Foundations’ one branch as a Town Bank branch.
During the next 90 days, Town Bank will work on the conversion of Foundations’ data processing systems to its own systems. It will also evaluate the branch network in Pewaukee, and may close the Town Bank branch at N27 W24025 Paul Court off Hwy. 164, about a mile away from Foundations’ branch at N35 W23877 Highfield Court off Capitol Drive, said Jay Mack, president and chief executive officer of Town Bank.
“We like the Foundations location on Capitol Drive,” Mack said. “We feel it’s probably less disruptive for our customers than it would be for Foundations’ customers. The Foundations branch has a larger retail deposit base and retail customers.”
The Pewaukee Town Bank branch is mostly used by business customers, who come to the 2,500-square-foot branch less frequently than retail customers would, Mack said. Town Bank also has a number of offices in the 20,000-square-foot building, which it owns. If the branch closes, it may keep the offices open or sell the whole building.
“We’re evaluating options right now,” Mack said. “We’re growing, we need additional back office and operations space, so it could be the Pewaukee building would serve as that.”
Town Bank has 250 employees. Foundations has 25 employees, all of whom Mack hopes to keep on in the integration.
“Our plan is we’re growing and we need people, so we’re evaluating. Obviously we want efficiencies, but we also need good people,” he said.
Foundations has $124 million in assets, about $73 million in loans and about $96 million in deposits. Wintrust has assets of about $23 billion.
“This transaction allows us to expand and complement our existing market presence in Pewaukee,” said Edward Wehmer, president and chief executive officer of Wintrust. “We look forward to continuing with the community banking approach that Foundations Bank has established and to providing its customer base with an expanded array of products and services.”
“We are excited to begin our partnership with a successful organization that is compatible with ours,” said John Hazod, president and CEO of Foundations Bank. “We share a philosophy of offering highly personalized customer-oriented retail and commercial banking services. The transaction allows us to continue to provide high quality service to our customers, while at the same time providing our customers with access to a wider range of products. We are pleased to join the Wintrust family.”
Wintrust has been active in acquiring southeastern Wisconsin banks over the past several years. The bank holding company acquired Town Bankshares Ltd. in 2004. Wintrust then acquired the Pewaukee branch of THE National Bank and Talmer Bancorp.’s 11 Wisconsin Talmer Bank and Trust branches in April 2014, folding them into Town Bank. In January 2015, Wintrust acquired Delavan-based Delavan Bancshares Inc., parent company of Community Bank CBD, for $38 million and folded it into Town Bank as well.
